


Utter Chaos

by someofthissomeofthat11011



Series: Guardian Angel [2]
Category: Vampire Academy Series - Richelle Mead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-30
Updated: 2013-10-31
Packaged: 2017-12-25 03:40:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 42
Words: 46,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/948192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/someofthissomeofthat11011/pseuds/someofthissomeofthat11011
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With strigoi around every corner and a wedding to plan, Rose and Dimitri have their hands full.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN VAMPIRE ACADEMY

She turned Strigoi Rose. She turned Strigoi Rose. She turned Strigoi Rose. She turned Strigoi Rose. She turned Strigoi Rose. She turned Strigoi Rose. She turned Strigoi Rose. She turned Strigoi Rose. The thought hammered around in my head. No matter how hard I try, I cannot get those words out of my head. I've been sitting on the floor in the Belikov's living room, holding my head in my hands for hours, crying every now and then. I managed to tell Dimitri what happened and he in turn told his family. Most of his family was sitting in the living with expressions from horror to shock on their faces.

Tasha turned Strigoi. That was the one thing I thought she never would do. She tried so hard to fight the stigma that was created when Christian's parents willingly turned Strigoi. She was going to be executed for attempted treason. I guess she would rather turn Strigoi than die.

"I can't believe Tasha did this!" Olena said angrily. I had to keep reminding myself that Tasha had been a friend of the family. The Belikovs were hurting too.

I sobbed again as I remembered the rest of my conversation with Lissa.

"Lissa, who did she kill?" I asked her.

"Oh Rose, I'm so sorry," she sobbed. My heart clenched in my chest. I knew this was going to be bad.

"Lissa! Who was it?" I asked my voice hollow, but I already knew the answer. She still couldn't answer me. "Give the phone to Christian," I ordered her.

She handed the phone over. "Hello?" Christian asked. He sounded dead.

"Hey bro. How are you holding up?" I asked him.

"I'll be okay," he said his voice cracking.

"Christian I'm really sorry. About everything, but I need to know something," I told him.

"Eddie. She killed Eddie"

I couldn't stop sobbing. Eddie who escape Spokane with me. Eddie who guarded Lissa in the field experience as if it were the real thing. Eddie who was captured by Strigoi. Eddie who was rescued from Strigoi because of the debt I felt I owed to him and to Mason. Eddie, my best guy friend who I failed.

Eddie, so full of humor and life was dead. I couldn't believe it. The sobs racked through me again. Dimitri held me close to him and let me cry. He understood how much this hurt me. He wrapped a blanket around my shoulders.

When I had finally cried all of my tears, I let down the walls to the dead.

There were faces everywhere, but I didn't see the one I was looking for. "Eddie?" I called softly.

I was faintly aware of the Belikovs moving. "No. She's seeing if Eddie's in the land of the dead. She has that ability," Dimitri said to them quietly.

"How is that possible?" Olena asked.

"Because she's died and come back," Dimitri explained. "She can sense strigoi too." Once he made sure his family went back to their seats, he ran back to my side. I took strength from his presence.

Eddie appeared in front of me and I gripped Dimitri's hand. I knew my nails dug in, but he didn't complain. Eddie was a washed out color and looked really sad. He reminded me of Mason. Mason had always looked depressed, but he had come to me with a message I couldn't understand. I needed to make sure Eddie was okay. I needed to help him move on.

"Eddie I'm so sorry," I said. I didn't think I had any tears left to cry, but I was wrong. As tears streamed down my face, I asked, "Do you hate me?"

He shook his head. "I'm sorry this had to happen to you. After everything you've been through, you didn't deserve this. No one deserves this." I told him.

He shrugged. I got the message. There was nothing I could have done. If it wasn't him it would have been someone else. In a weird way I found that reassuring. I realized I was truly scared he would hate me for this.

"I tried hard to protect you Eddie, but I failed. When you were taken by Strigoi, you were the only reason we went on the rescue mission. I felt I owed it to Mason to keep you safe, but I couldn't even do that," I said to him sadly.

He shook his head at me frantically. "Is Tasha coming?" I asked him lifelessly.

He nodded wordlessly. "Is she coming alone?" I knew that was too much to ask for, but I had to know for sure. I didn't think she was stupid enough to come by herself. Eddie shook his head, confirming my doubts.

"How many?" I asked him quietly. I didn't know if I really wanted to know the answer, but I wanted to be prepared.

He held up two fingers on one hand and zero on the other. I knew he wasn't saying two. "Twenty?" I asked uncertainly. He nodded. "Is it possible she'll pick up some more on the way?" He nodded. I was quiet for a long time.

"How long?" I finally asked. He held up three fingers.

"Three days?" I asked in disbelief. He nodded, his sad expression deepening.

I stood up and pulled the blanket close to me and stood up. "I'm going to kill her Eddie. I promise I'm going to kill her for you," I promised. A ghost of a smile played on his lips as I tried to pull the walls back up. I leant on Dimitri for strength and though it took time and effort, I successfully got them up. I collapsed in Dimitri's arms, too exhausted to cry anymore. I felt safe in his arms. I knew whatever comes, we would face it together. We would either both survive or both die. There was no other option. I felt comfort at that. I snuggled into his chest. He helped me stand up and we walked to his bedroom. I fell asleep in his arms.

I knew what I had to do. I had to kill Tasha Ozera.


	2. Chapter 2

I woke up the next morning, feeling renewed. Dimitri and I spent a few more moments locked in each other's embrace, but then we had to get down to business.

Dimitri contacted a couple of guardians he knew were stationed in Siberia. We figured out that we would have to put the dhampirs unable to fight or unwilling to fight in the chapel. They would be safe there, because Strigoi cannot enter holy ground. We decided to have some novices stationed outside the chapel just in case the Strigoi try anything. I hated to put novices' lives at risk, but they could always go in the chapel and we need every able-bodied guardian with us. It's no picnic taking down twenty something Strigoi.

We spent all day planning. I was terrified, but I would never tell him that. I knew it was me Tasha was after. She was probably going to spare Dimitri. But me? She would show me no mercy.

I think he knew what I was thinking, in the weird way that we understood each other, but he never said anything. I know he wasn't planning on letting anything happen to me without a fight. If I died it would mean he died too and vice versa. I couldn't bear to spend one minute away from him. I practically had a panic attack when Olena asked him to help her with the dishes. She looked at me with an expression filled with compassion and understanding, and I joined them.

That night, Dimitri and I focused on being together. We didn't know how much time we had left together and we didn't want to waste a second of it. There was a kind of urgency behind our kisses.

The next day, I checked in with Eddie again. He told me Tasha's army was up to twenty-four Strigoi, not including her. I relayed the news to Dimitri whose gloomy expression deepened.

"Dimitri, what happens now?" I asked him nervously. I wanted to hear him say everything is going to be okay, but I knew he wasn't going to lie to me.

"I don't know Roza. I don't know," he admitted.

I snuggled closer to him. "I love you so much Dimitri," I told him.

"You know that's the first time you've called me Dimitri in a really long time," he told me, his tone light and teasing.

I shrugged. "Can't always call you Comrade. I have to change it up every now and then to keep you on your toes."

"Consider me kept," he said kissing me gently. I just wanted to live in that moment. I want to pretend that a Strigoi army isn't coming to kill me and get Dimitri away from me. I want to pretend I'm not endangering countless lives. I want to pretend that this is just an ordinary day and that Dimitri and I will have many more like it. But I can't pretend those things.

As the kiss picked up, it became easier. I still remembered all those things, but I was able to push them to the back of my mind. I wanted Dimitri to make me forget everything and he wanted me to make him forget everything. So that's exactly what we did.

When we lay against one another afterward, it was in a comfortable silence. We didn't want anything to ruin this moment. We cherished our last seconds of normality. I fell asleep in his arms, unsure if this would be the last time I would be granted that luxury. Tomorrow, we will meet Tasha. Tomorrow we will fight Strigoi. Tomorrow I might lose the love of my life. Tomorrow I might die. But for right now, I am living in the here and now. I am living in the moment where I am with Dimitri and all is right with the world.

Tasha stepped out of the shadows of the trees. "Join me," she compelled Dimitri. I was being restrained by two Strigoi. They had long since defeated me. Now I had to watch. I had to watch Dimitri offer his neck to her, like a puppet on a string.

I watched as she bit into his neck and drained him of his blood then fed some of her blood back to him. I watched, utterly helpless.

The next time he stirred, he sat up without opening his eyes. He was pale, paler than the moroi, pale as death. Then he opened his eyes. There was a red ring around them.

Tasha crushed her lips to his and he kissed her back enthusiastically. "Are you thirsty my dear?" Tasha asked him seductively.

Dimitri nodded. "Very much," he said his voice as cold and hard as death.

"Well, I have a meal for you." Tasha said pointing towards me.

Dimitri walked over to where I was being restrained. When he looked at me, it was like he forgot I was his fiancé, forgot that we were in love. All he saw me as was a meal. I saw death in his eyes and when his fangs bit into my neck, I knew that was it. I was going to die.

I woke up screaming and sobbing. Dimitri immediately wrapped his arms around me. "It's okay. It was just a dream. It's okay. It wasn't real," he said soothingly.

"That's the thing. It was real. I had an awful dream Dimitri. I realized Tasha is determined to be with you. Well there's only one way you can be together now," I sobbed.

I saw understanding light up his features. "You're saying that she's going to turn me?" He asked uncertainly. He wasn't able to avoid the shiver of fear that rolled through his body.

Seeing him in fear, hardened my resolve. "No. I won't let her." No matter what happens, I will not let Dimitri walk away from this as a Strigoi. "No matter what, I will make sure you come out of this a dhampir," I promised him.

I kissed my forehead gently and we just laid in one another's arms. We couldn't fall back asleep. We could only cling to one another and hope that the morning won't bring the death and destruction it promised.


	3. Chapter 3

I woke up with a start. I didn't even realize I had fallen back asleep. Trying to figure out what woke me up, I heard someone sobbing in the hallway. Being careful not to wake Dimitri, I went out to the hallway.

Viktoria was sitting on the stairs. I walked over and sat down next to her. Her eyes were red and puffy and she had big bags under her eyes. She didn't look like she's slept at all.

"Viktoria, what's wrong?" I asked her concerned.

She looked at me, but didn't answer. "You can trust me you know," I told her putting an arm around her shoulder. She threw her arms around me and sobbed into my shoulder.

"It's just Dimka wants me to fight and I'm scared, because I can't fight, but I can't tell him that," she told me.

"You're a year from graduating Viktoria. You have got amazing marks at your school so far we all know you're capable of doing this. We all have faith in you. Regardless of whether or not you choose to become a guardian, I know you can do this," I told her soothingly. I wasn't happy about the age law that meant Viktoria was graduating this year, but I was grateful it was passed after summer started, so at least the current sixteen year olds would be able to complete another year of school.

"You don't understand. I can't fight," she cried.

"Why not?" I asked her curiously.

She looked at me and bit her lip. "Can I trust you?" She asked.

I nodded at her. "Of course. You can't tell anyone, especially not Dimitri," she warned.

"I promised," I said hesitantly.

"A little over three months ago, I was with this moroi guy. His name was Roland. I was home for spring break and when I met him, I really thought I loved him. He was so sweet to me. He would get me jewelry and take me out places. On Easter, I told my mother I was going to a party held by some kids from school. She let me go, but I didn't go to the party. I met up with Roland. We went to a club," she cried.

When she didn't continue, I asked, "a club?"

"It's pretty much a whore house," she admitted bitterly. I tried to conceal my surprise at her term.

"What happened?" I asked her gently. She tightened her hug.

"Well Roland took me inside and immediately brought me to one of the bedrooms in the club. And I let him drink from me Rose. Oh I was so stupid. I really thought he loved me. I was so dumb to think that. The second I needed him, he turned his back on me. And now I'm scared. You have no idea what a vampire bite feels like. It's amazing and I'm scared that I won't be able to keep myself from becoming a blood whore to get those endorphins," she admitted to me.

I pulled back slightly. "When I was a sophomore, I ran away from St. Vladimir's Academy. I took my best friend, Lissa with me. Lissa was a Moroi. In the human world, it's not like we had feeders on hand, so I fed her. She drank from me at least twice a week for two years," I told Viktoria. "I know how hard it is to resist the bite after that. I became dependent on it. When your brother captured us and brought us back to St. Vladimir's, I was jealous of the feeders. It's hard to shake the addiction. But I just had to concentrate on what I wanted. I wanted to be a guardian and I didn't want that to get in my way. Every day I resisted, it became easier. If you don't want to let moroi drink your blood then don't."

Viktoria looked at me, her eyes wide. "I don't know if I can be as strong as you," she admitted. "I don't have the future you do."

"You could become a guardian if you wanted to," I told her.

Viktoria shook her head. "It's too late," she cried.

"Viktoria, is there something you're not telling me?" I asked her gently.

"The night I let Roland drink from me…" She started. Then she hesitated and bit her lip. "Oh Rose," she said throwing her arms around me again. "I slept with him and the condom broke. We figured it wasn't a big deal, I mean what's the likelihood?"

"Viktoria. Are you?" I asked, unable to finish my question.

She looked at me and nodded. She lifted her shirt up a little bit and put my hand on her stomach. She had a small but defined baby bump. "Oh," I said. I pulled her into a hug. "It's going to be okay. I'll talk to Dimitri and I'll make sure he won't make you fight."

"No, no. You promised," Viktoria sobbed.

"I'm not going to tell him why. Don't worry. But Viktoria, you can't hide it forever," I warned her.

She nodded at me. "I'm not going to. I'm lucky the hormones haven't hit me like they do to Sonya or Karolina. Then everyone would know. But it just never seemed like the right time. When I first got back from school, I wanted to have a few more days to enjoy home the way it is now, because I know that's now going to change. When I finally was going to tell them, we got a letter from Dimitri saying he was coming to visit and that he was bringing a friend with him," Viktoria rolled her eyes. "We all knew you were going to be more than a friend. He doesn't talk about anyone unless their very important to him and he talks about you a lot. After that, everyone was so excited to see Dimka again that I didn't want to ruin it. And now with Strigoi coming," she broke off sobbing.

"It's okay. I'm here for you. Everything's going to be alright," I promised her.

"Thanks Rose." Viktoria said, calming down a little bit. When she had cried all of her tears, I helped her back to her room.

"Get some sleep Viktoria," I ordered. She nodded obediently and I closed her door behind me. I made my way back to Dimitri's room. I took a deep breath. Time to face Dimitri.


	4. Chapter 4

When I walked into Dimitri's bedroom, he looked relieved to see me. He was sitting up in his bed. "I didn't know you had left. When I woke up and you weren't here…" he trailed off. I could see how worried he had been.

I went over and sat next to him. He automatically wrapped his arms around me. "I'm sorry Comrade," I told him.

"It's okay," he said quietly. He kissed my forehead and made his way down to my lips.

It was a long sweet kiss, and for the first time, I was the one to break it. He looked at me concerned. "What's wrong Roza?" He asked me.

"I've been thinking. I think that we should put someone in the church. Someone who would be able to keep everyone calm and make sure everyone gets what they need," I told him.

"I could have Sonya do that," he told me. I could say he agreed with my idea. I just hoped that wouldn't change when I told him who I wanted in there.

"No offense, but I think with Sonya's hormones, and a baby on the way, a chapel full of the elderly, and the children might be a little too much for her to handle," I admitted.

"That's a valid point, but who did you have in mind?" He asked curiously.

"Viktoria," I told him not making eye contact.

He cupped my chin and pushed up so I would have to look him in the eye. "Why Viktoria?" He asked.

"Because she's only a sophomore. You know as well as I do that the in depth guardian classes don't start until their junior year. She will only have the basic training and we shouldn't risk someone that doesn't have the proper training. Also, if anyone can keep hundreds of people in line and calm, it's definitely Viktoria. She would even be able to keep the children occupied. She has had a lot of practice with Paul and Zoya," I pointed out.

Dimitri looked at me. I could tell he knew I was hiding something, but he couldn't find fault in my logic. I leaned against his chest while he thought about my suggestion. Almost an hour passed before he spoke. "Okay," he finally agreed.

"Okay?" I asked. I was sure I was going to have to argue for a while.

"I know you have a good reason for wanting Viktoria in there, and I'm sure you have a good reason for not telling me what it is," he told me. I saw a little pain in his eyes when he acknowledged that I was keeping something from him.

"It's not my reason to tell," I admitted. "I wish I could tell you, but I can't. I'm sorry." He watched me for a little longer. Then he nodded his head.

I really hate keeping secrets from him, but I wasn't going to betray Viktoria's trust.

He glanced at his watch. "Sunset is in an hour," he told me as he pulled me closer.

"I guess it's time," I said with a sigh as I pulled his head down so his lips could meet mine.

We didn't know exactly when Tasha and her army would get here, but we knew it wouldn't be that long after sunset. We had to get everyone who wasn't fighting to the chapel.

"I'll go wake up Sonya and Yeva. You get Karolina and Viktoria," he told me.

"What about Olena?" I asked.

"Knowing her, she's been up for hours," Dimitri said.

I nodded and we went off in opposite directions. I woke up Karolina first, because I knew she would need time to wake up Paul and Zoya. Then I went to Viktoria.

I shook her gently. "Viktoria," I said quietly.

She grumbled and rolled over, but didn't open her eyes. I shook her a little harder. "Viktoria!" She once again ignored me. Good God she's a deeper sleeper than I am. I pushed her and this time she woke up.

"What? What's going on?" She asked sleepily.

"You need to wake up. Today's the day," I told her. I knew she was sleepy. She went to sleep less than two hours ago.

"What? Oh! Am I fighting?" She asked nervously.

I shook my head. "No, we found another job for you. We need you in the church to keep everyone calm and help them if they need anything. We're also hoping you will be able to keep the children occupied with something," I told her.

She threw her arms around me. "Thank you! I wasn't sure if you would be able to get me out of it without telling him about it," she said. I didn't need to ask what 'it' was.

"I would never tell him anything that you told me not to," I told her. "Well not something that's serious like this."

She looked at me gratefully. "Rose I want you to know. You and Dimitri may not be married yet, but you are still like a sister to me," she told me through tears.

"You're like a sister to me too," I told her. I hugged her again briefly. "Now let's go. We have to get ready."

She was up in a heartbeat and we walked out of her room. We went down to the kitchen where Olena was preparing food. Dimitri was having a whispered conversation in Russian with her. I didn't interrupt or ask what they were saying. I already knew. They were telling one another to be careful. Olena had tears falling down her face.

She handed Viktoria a basket filled with food. "This is for the people at the church. There's a lot of food in there, but they can only eat when they get hungry. There won't be enough for everyone and they won't be able to leave," she told Viktoria in English. Viktoria nodded.

Slowly, but surely the church filled up as everyone in the dhampir community filtered in. We had almost fifty guardians to fight with us, but this was still going to be difficult. We stationed six novices outside the church and went to take our respective places. I grabbed Dimitri's hand and we watched the sun set.


	5. Chapter 5

The first Strigoi seemed to appear out of thin air. He was young. Maybe fifteen or sixteen when he was changed and he still had a boyish look to him. He walked forward alone.

Then suddenly he wasn't alone anymore. He was surrounded by Strigoi. At least thirty, maybe more. I guess Tasha made some more friends. He stood still for a millisecond while we observed our opponent. Then we attacked.

I immediately ran for a woman with long red hair. She was an old Strigoi. She didn't have a hint of life in her skin. She was fast and she was strong. She knew how to fight, something gained through decades of experience. She didn't give me the chance to go on the offensive, but I knew I wasn't going to tire her out. I aimed a kick for her stomach, which she blocked because she was expecting that. What she was expecting was for my stake to graze her cheek when she moved out of the way of my kick. She hesitated, startled that I had touched her. I stabbed her in the shoulder which made her drop the arm she was holding over her chest. I plunged my stake through her heart.

I turned to look around me. I saw Dimitri battling three Strigoi. I snuck up behind one Strigoi and stabbed him in the heart from behind. The other two looked at me startled, giving Dimitri the opportunity to stake one of them. Dimitri and I quickly finished off the third.

Dimitri gave me a grateful look then turned to find another Strigoi. I did the same. I saw the young Strigoi that had first appeared, not even taking part in the battle. I went up to him and he didn't even move. Something didn't seem right here. He was staring at the battle before him. Well if he wasn't going to fight back, might as well get him out of the way. I ran up to him to stake him. He finally turned to face me.

I almost gasped. He may have been young when he had turned, but he must have been turned a long time ago. I've never seen a Strigoi so pale and even though he is young, his posture suggests that he has great power.

I quickly pushed my fear aside and started fighting this Strigoi. When he saw I wasn't backing down, he laughed. That was his mistake. He sees a girl who is small and short. What he doesn't see is a woman willing to take down anything that is threatening those she loves.

A near-bye Strigoi looked over and rolled his eyes. "You're going to play with your food aren't you Bartholomew?"

"What's life without a little fun?" Bartholomew asked, his voice suggesting death to any who cross it.

I lunged forward to him. He blocked my attack with a lazy flick of his wrist. With that one small movement, I felt like I had been hit by a truck. I realized that this Strigoi was not going to be easy to take down. I measured my moves more carefully after that and managed to avoid most of his hits. I studied his moves and as I got used to them, the smile on his face fell. Some Strigoi that weren't fighting with dhampirs watched our fight with interest.

I managed to cut his thigh with my stake. For a younger Strigoi, the pain would have been unbearable. For him, he winced slightly then forgot about it. The wince was all I needed as I kicked him in the stomach. He faltered, but still kept his chest protected. I stabbed his wrist with my stake. His face contorted with pain, and he looked furious. I punched the side of his face. I briefly left myself open to an attack and he took it, kicking me in my stomach.

I was sure I heard a crack, but I had too much adrenaline courses through my veins to notice. He had expected me to fall from that attack or at the very least pause. What he didn't expect was for me to kick his hip. It caused him to drop his defenses. I stabbed his chest, but knew I missed his heart. I pulled my stake back out and threw all my weight into it as I aimed for his chest. I pulled it out as the life drained from his eyes.

I didn't hear the sounds of battle anymore, and I turned around confused. The Strigoi were in shock. They looked at me with a mixture of fear and awe.

"She killed Bartholomew," one Strigoi whispered.

"No way. It's not possible," another said.

The guardians were unsure of what to do. A fighting Strigoi, they could deal with, but one that was motionless, they had no idea. I briefly wondered what was so special about Bartholomew.

I didn't have much time to wonder, because all of a sudden the fight continued as if it had never stopped. I searched for Dimitri and watched him stake a Strigoi and turn on another one. Content that he was still alive, I joined the fray.

I lost track of how many Strigoi I killed or how long I had been fighting. It must have been several hours, because the sky was lightening and the Strigoi were retreating.

I turned around and saw Dimitri panting with his hands on his knees. He looked exhausted and bruised, but he was alive.

To my surprise, that's when three human's came out. They weren't that far from where I was standing and I could hear their quiet conversation.

"Which one do you think is her?" one asked.

"I don't know. Short, dark hair is what boss said," the other responded.

"I wonder why she wants her dead so badly," another mused.

"I don't know. Maybe she's the one that mauled up her cheek," one responded.

I felt my blood go cold. They were talking about Tasha. And the one they were supposed to kill was me. I guess Tasha had them as back-up in case I survived the attack.

"There, I think that's her," the one man said. He wasn't pointing at me. I looked to where he was pointing and I felt my heart drop to my feet.

She wasn't supposed to be out here. But she was. Standing over the body of a guardian was Viktoria. And they thought she was me.

One of them pulled out a gun and something told me they weren't going to miss. I started running. I wasn't thinking of me, I wasn't even thinking of Viktoria. I was thinking of the little baby inside of her. I got there just in time and I felt the bullets bite into my chest. I dropped to the ground and stars danced in front of my eyes. I was scared to close my eyes, because I wasn't sure if I would ever be able to open them again, but my eyelids were getting heavier. I guess Tasha was going to get her wish after all. I saw three Viktoria's looking down at me. Pretty soon she was joined by three Dimitri's. There were tears streaming down his face. I concentrated on his face, using it as strength. When I closed my eyes, I kept thinking of him. I had a reason to stay on Earth. Tasha is still alive and Dimitri is waiting for me. I had to fight through this. The world of the dead could not have me this time. Then the darkness pulled me under.


	6. Chapter 6

I woke up in a strange house. I looked around me confused. Dimitri's face immediately came into view.

"Good morning Sleeping Beauty," he said kissing my forehead.

"Morning Comrade," I said fidgeting a little bit. I didn't feel like I was in that much pain.

"Do you want to sit up?" He asked me.

I stared at him. "You're letting me move?" I asked him legitimately confused.

"I'll help you of course, but I don't see why not," he told me.

I just stared at him confused. Maybe I was still asleep. "How long was I out for?" I asked him.

"A little less than four days. You know. That's the third time in two weeks you nearly died on me. I'm getting really tired of it. From now on no more near-death experiences okay?" He said as he helped my into a sitting position.

"If I didn't know better, I would say you just made a joke Comrade," I teased him.

He was about to respond when a moroi woman and a male dhampir walked into the room. The woman came over to me. "Hi. I'm Oksana," she said holding her hand out to me.

I shook it. "I'm Rose," I told her. She started to check my bandages.

"You were very brave Rose," she told me. "You saved Viktoria's life. Are you in pain?"

"A little. Mostly my chest feels tight," I told her

She nodded then turned around and went to a small cabinet.

The man came up to me while she was rummaging through all the bottles.

"I'm Mark. I'm Oksana's husband," he said holding his hand out to me. It took all of my self-control to keep the surprise off my face.

"No, not that one. It's too strong," Mark said to Oksana. I looked in between them, confused. He hadn't even turned to face her. It was like me and Lissa used to be.

"You have a bond," I said before I could stop myself. I was sure of it. Dimitri looked up surprised.

Oksana slowly turned to face me. Surprise was written across her face. "Yes," she said. "Not a lot of people know that."

"Which means you specialized in spirit," I said.

"Now that is something no one knows. How do you know about this?" She asked me confused.

"My best friend Lissa is a spirit user. I used to be bonded to her," I explained.

"Used to be?"

"Yeah. I was uh… staked in my stomach. I nearly died, and for some reason the bond disappeared after that."

Oksana was staring at me. She was reading my aura, I realized. "She's telling the truth," she said to Mark.

Mark stared at me shocked. He hadn't expected that. He briefly glanced at Oksana and nodded.

Watching them, I sort of miss the silent communication me and Lissa used to have. I was still partially in shock at having found another spirit user.

"Did you heal me?" I asked Oksana.

She nodded. "I didn't do it completely, because it would have taken too much spirit, but I did heal you enough that your wounds are no longer life threatening," she explained.

"Thank you," I said to her earnestly.

She nodded once more as she handed me two pills and a glass of water. Then she and Mark left the room.

I looked at Dimitri, finally letting my shock show. "Only you would find a spirit user with a bondmate," he said teasingly.

I shrugged. "It's so weird running into them," I told him.

He nodded. "Rose… I want to ask you something."

I looked at him expectantly. "What do you need to ask me?" I asked curiously.

"Why did you jump in front of Viktoria?" He asked.

"Should I not have?" I asked confused.

"Well, it's not that I'm not grateful. I am. You saved my baby sister's life. It's just, you had no reason to try to save her. She's not your best friend. You've only known her for a couple of days," he said.

"You're right that I've only known her for a couple of day, but I already think of her as my sister," I told him. "And as for why I did it. You're going to have to ask Viktoria about it."

"I want to know what was going through your head," he told me.

Before I could answer, all of the Belikov's burst into the room I was in. Karolina, Yeva, and the kids were not here. Viktoria was the first to reach me. "Oh thank you! Rose I don't know how to thank you enough. If it weren't for you, we would not be here right now," she sobbed. I don't think anyone noticed that Viktoria slipped and accidentally said 'we' just now.

The second Viktoria broke our embrace, Olena had scooped me up into her arms tightly. "I can never thank you enough. You saved Dimitri before and now you saved Viktoria. You didn't have to jump in front of her, but you did. Thank you so much," she said to me. She was crying. When she pulled back, she grabbed Viktoria and held her to her.

I was very surprised to see the next person. Sonya was standing in front of me. "Rose. You were very brave out there. I want to say I'm sorry for the mean things I said to you the other day. I realize now that you are good for our Dimka," she said to me.

"Thanks Sonya," I said with a smile.

"I do have a question for you though. I'm extremely grateful that you saved Viktoria, but I was wondering why you did it," she said.

"Good luck. She wouldn't even tell me that," Dimitri said annoyed.

Everyone's eyes were on me. I looked at Viktoria. She looked back at me curiously. I let my eyes drop to her stomach then back up to her face. Only Viktoria saw my movement.

"Oh," she said, realization spreading across her face.

Everyone turned to look at her curiously. "Am I finally going to find out the big secret?" Dimitri asked, turning to me expectantly.

"I told you, it's not mine to tell," I said to him quietly.

Dimitri turned to Viktoria. "Rose said that only you would know why she jumped in front of you," he said uncertainly.

Viktoria nodded. "I didn't think you would be able to keep this from him that long. Thank you," she said to me. "I guess now is as good a time as any to let you know. Rose jumped in front of me, because she wasn't just protecting me," Viktoria started.

"Who else could she have been protecting? You were standing over a dead body," Dimitri pointed out.

"That's not what I'm talking about," she said.

"You might as well get it over with," I told her.

She looked right at me as she said, "I'm pregnant."


	7. Chapter 7

The Belikov's reactions were not what I expected them to be. I knew Dimitri would be furious, so his trying to break my hand wasn't a surprise. I thought Olena would be angry, but she just stood there shocked. So did Sonya.

I kept my eyes locked on Viktoria as I gave her a small smile. She was tense. She came over and sat down next to me, wisely on the side opposite Dimitri. I squeezed her hand reassuringly.

Finally, Olena got over the shock. She threw her arms around me again. "I owe you more than I thought. I owe you for my grandchild's life as well," she said to me.

"Can't… Breathe…" I managed to gasp out. Olena released me, looking slightly embarrassed.

"How far along are you?" Dimitri asked, through gritted teeth.

"A little over three months. It um... happened on Easter," she admitted.

Then Dimitri turned on me. "You knew?" He asked. I nodded. So when you asked if Viktoria could babysit the people in the chapel, it wasn't about her being inexperienced?" I nodded. Dimitri muttered something in Russian.

"Don't be mad at her. I asked her not to tell anyone," Viktoria defended me.

"I'm not mad… well I am, but mostly I'm annoyed that you didn't tell me," he said to me.

"I hated keeping it from you, but I didn't want to betray Viktoria's trust. I wanted to tell you so badly. I don't like keeping secrets," I told him honestly.

"Then don't," he said kissing my forehead.

"Oh like you don't keep secrets?" Viktoria challenged. I looked up interested.

"Let's go," Olena suddenly said.

"Where are we going?" Viktoria asked.

"We're going to the doctor's to get your baby looked at, then we're going to get you prenatal vitamins, then we are going to go home and I'm going to lock you in your room until your thirty," Olena told her. She was angry yes, but her relief at Viktoria being safe and alive overshadowed her anger and weakened her threat significantly.

"I'm going to have to leave every now and then to get the baby checked out," Viktoria pointed out jokingly.

Olena rolled her eyes at Viktoria and started to leave.

"Can Rose come?" Viktoria asked.

"I don't know. Can I leave yet?" I asked unsure.

"Yes. You should be good to go. The only reason you were still here is they didn't want to move you until you were awake," Dimitri said.

"Wait. Before we leave, I want to know about these secrets you keep," I said stubbornly.

"I'll tell you in the car," Viktoria promised. Dimitri groaned.

Dimitri had to help me walk, but other than that we didn't have a problem getting to the car. We drove to the hospital. Viktoria and Viktoria told me some funny stories about Dimitri.

"I didn't know you were a married man Comrade," I said to him between giggles. Sonya had just told me the story about how Dimitri used to marry Karolina's dolls when he was younger.

"Keep this up and I won't be," he teased.

I kissed his cheek. "You wouldn't. You can't resist me," I said seductively, giving him my man-eater smile.

"Um… Ew! He's my brother," Viktoria said as she made a face.

"Yes, but he's my sexy boyfriend," I said as I snuggled into his chest.

He groaned in defeat. "You win! I guess I'll have to marry you after all," he joked. I grinned to myself.

When we got to the hospital, we must have been a strange sight. A middle aged woman, a very pregnant woman, a very bruised six foot seven man, and an obviously bandaged eighteen year old with a sixteen year old who is pregnant. We explained to the woman that we were here for an ultrasound.

The receptionist immediately turned to Sonya. "Really she's over eight months pregnant. Do you think she's really here for an ultrasound?" Olena asked sarcastically. "The appointment is for Viktoria Belikova." She pointed at Viktoria.

I was loving Dimitri's mother more and more every day.

We took our seats in the waiting room. A doctor finally came out and called Viktoria's name.

"You may go in," the receptionist said.

"Thanks Sherlock," I muttered under my breath. Viktoria laughed at my comment. We all walked into the examination room. Viktoria sat up on the bed and we crowded around the foot of the bed.

"Are all of you staying for the ultrasound?" The doctor asked surprised.

"Yes. I want them all here," Viktoria said with authority. The doctor nodded and asked no more questions.

"This will be cold," she warned Viktoria. Viktoria gasped as a cold gel was applied to her stomach. Dimitri clutched my hand harder as the doctor moved the ultrasound wand around Viktoria's stomach. The baby's heartbeat filled the room.

On the screen by Viktoria, we could make out the small blob that was her baby.

"Oh! It's beautiful," Viktoria said happily.

"It's a blob," I said without thinking.

"Yes, but it's my blob," she said. Everyone laughed at her comment.

I was happy for her. I realized they still hadn't told Karolina and Yeva, because we hadn't seen them yet. I wondered what their reactions would be. The doctor left to print out the pictures of the blob… I mean baby.

I turned to Dimitri, something suddenly occurring to me. "Can I talk to you for a sec," I whispered in his ear.

"We're leaving soon. When we get back home," he promised.

I nodded. The doctor came back and handed Viktoria the images. We walked out to the car and before I knew it, we were home.

While Viktoria and Olena went to tell Karolina and Yeva the news, Dimitri and I made our way to his bedroom.

I had every intention of talking, just talking. But the second the door closed, I realized that we were alone with a very comforting and inviting bed in the middle of the room. Whatever I wanted to ask him vanished from my mind as I ran into his arms and our lips connected.


	8. Chapter 8

The next morning, we woke up to a knock on the door. "Are you two decent?" Viktoria asked.

I looked over Dimitri as he looked over me. We were both lying in bed naked.

"Define decent," I called. "He looks decent to me but I don't know if you would agree." Dimitri was having silent fits of laughter.

"Eew!" Viktoria complained. "He's my brother!"

"He's my fiancé," I retorted. "What do you need Viktoria?"

"Mother says breakfast is ready," she called through the door. "If you two can keep your hands off each other long enough come eat."

"We're practicing for our honeymoon. We'll be down soon," I told her.

"Eew!" Viktoria shrieked and I heard her stomp away.

"I think you got way to much pleasure out of that," Dimitri teased.

"I've never had a sister to torture before. It's more fun than I thought it would be," I admitted. Dimitri laughed.

My stomach grumbled. "Breakfast?" He asked. I nodded. We got out of bed and started to get dressed. It took a while, because we stopped a lot to kiss.

When we finally made our way to the kitchen, everyone was seated at the kitchen table. Dimitri and I took the two open seats. Breakfast was delicious. French toast with cinnamon swirls, yum! Olena also made scrambled eggs and sausage. I devoured my breakfast.

We cleaned up after breakfast. Viktoria started to walk up to her room, but Dimitri stopped her.

"Wait Viktoria. I want to talk to you," he told her. "Let's go to the living room."

Viktoria grudgingly agreed. Sonya was the only other person in the living room. Dimitri and I sat down on a couch and Viktoria sat on a chair next to Sonya.

"I want to know about the father," Dimitri ordered.

"I don't know what you want me to say. He was an asshole Royal Moroi. I thought I was different, but he was just using me. It was so easy to get carried away. He had auburn hair. It wasn't really short, but it wasn't as long as yours Dimka. It felt like silk when you ran your hands through it and it was really wavy. He had the green eyes that are common with the Ivashkov's," she explained.

Sonya gasped. "Viktoria! What was his name? This moroi. What was it?" She asked frantically.

"Rolan Ivashkov. Sonya what's wrong?" Viktoria asked her concerned.

Sonya's hands went to rest on her swollen stomach as she tried to calm herself down. I glanced at Dimitri. He looked lost.

I, however, was not lost. I think I knew exactly what was going on. "Sonya…" I started hesitantly. Her eyes locked with mine and I asked her my question silently. I think she understood my question, because she started chewing on her bottom lip. Finally, she nodded and tears started to stream down her eyes. I walked over to her and wrapped my arms around her pregnant frame. "Oh Sonya. It's okay. It's okay," I told her soothingly, rubbing circle into her back to calm her down.

"I don't know what this is, but it is not okay!" Sonya sobbed.

"There's nothing you can do to change it now. It's awful to know, maybe even a little awkward, but it's going to be okay," I promised her.

My words seemed to help. She began to compose herself. "You have no idea how dumb I feel," Sonya whispered to me, trying not to let the others overhear.

I glanced at her then looked back at Dimitri. "I'm going to take her outside for some fresh air for a few minutes," I told him.

He looked at us curiously, but nodded.

I pulled Sonya outside. She sat down on the stairs leading to the house, and I sat down next to her.

"Sonya, did you ever tell anyone who the father of the baby was?" I asked her.

"No," she sobbed. "Oh I feel so stupid. It was just like Viktoria said. Rolan makes you feel so special and he's too goddam good looking for his own good. He made you believe that you were the one for him and then he leaves you. I only had sex with him once and our condom ripped," Sonya explained to me.

I sat up slightly and frowned. "That's odd," I said.

She looked at me curiously. "Viktoria had told me that when she had sex with Rolan, her condom ripped as well," I explained. "You don't think he would intentionally damage the condom do you?"

Nothing about him would surprise me," Sonya said bitterly. "I was so stupid. If I had told anyone who the father was, Viktoria wouldn't be in this situation. She would have known Rolan was bad news."

"You can't change the past. You can only look forward to the future," I told her.

"God, you sound just like my brother. A fortune cookie on legs," she teased.

I grinned at her, but my smile quickly faded. "I'm not saying you need to tell everyone, but I think you should share this information with Viktoria. It might help the both of you heal from everything Rolan did," I told her.

She nodded. "I might as well tell everyone. I'm sure they'll find out soon enough. I don't think you would be able to keep this from my brother," she said to me.

"Hey, I kept Viktoria's pregnancy a secret for almost five days," I told her.

"You were asleep for four of those," she pointed out with a grin.

I shrugged. "I would have done it anyway," I told her honestly.

She sighed and stood up. "I have to tell them. It's the only way to clear my conscience," she said.

I followed her back inside. "Rose, Sonya. What's going on?" Dimitri asked. I walked over and sat by his side.

"I have to tell you guys something," Sonya started hesitantly.

"What is it Sonya?" Dimitri asked gently.

"Do you remember when everyone was asking me about the father of my baby and I just kept saying it was just some moroi?" Sonya asked.

"Yes," Dimitri said hesitantly.

"Sonya, who's the father?" Viktoria asked fearfully.

"Rolan Ivashkov."


	9. Chapter 9

The shocked silence that followed was broken by a very angry Dimitri jumping to his feet.

"I'm going to kill that bastard," he said through gritted teeth. I immediately jumped up and tried to calm him down. I have a calming effect on him, the same way he has a calming effect on me. Once he has his temper under control, he sits back down. He's still furious.

"You can't Dimka," Sonya said. "You need to calm down."

"Calm down! Calm down! That bastard took advantage of both of you and you're telling me to calm down?" Dimitri yelled.

"It's not like he raped us. We were idiots and consented," Sonya pointed out.

"Yes you were idiots, but that doesn't change the fact that he took advantage of you. He manipulated your feelings and then got you to have sex with him!" Dimitri shouted.

"And damaged both of your condoms," I added without thinking. Only Sonya wasn't surprised by the news. Dimitri and Viktoria turned to me. Viktoria looked confused, while Dimitri looked angrier than ever. I really need to start thinking before I say things out loud. I would save myself a lot of trouble.

"What?" Dimitri asked.

"Oh… Well… when I was uh… talking to Sonya, she mentioned that her um… condom broke when she had sex with him. I find it strange that it happened to both of them. Or maybe it was an accident with Sonya, but I don't think it was a mistake with Viktoria. I think once Sonya was pregnant, Rolan probably wanted to get Viktoria pregnant. It was probably a game to him. You're a guy. You know how they think," I explained. Seriously. This whole saying whatever popped into my head thing. It's a really bad habit.

Dimitri stood up. "Where are you going?" I asked him.

"I'm going to find that asshole and rip him into pieces," Dimitri said.

"Calm down Comrade. You can't do that!" I warned him.

"Yeah. Think of how much trouble you would get in. You can't get away with royal assassination," Viktoria told him.

I was nearly as angry as Dimitri, I was just, for once, hiding it better than Dimitri. An idea suddenly popped into my head.

"We can make it look like an accident. Poor Rolan. I think he might fall down a flight of stairs," I suggested.

Sonya and Viktoria looked appalled. I saw a ghost of a smile play on Dimitri's lips. "I don't think falling down a flight of stairs will kill him," he pointed out.

"We don't need to kill him, just…" I trailed off. I think I may have found a way to take care of Rolan without Dimitri lifting a finger.

"Roza?" Dimitri asked uncertainly.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. Am I really going to do this? I look at the anger in Dimitri's face. I look at Viktoria who was taken advantage of and is now pregnant. I look at the very pregnant and hormonal Sonya and I have my answer. Yes I am.

I took a deep breath and turned to Dimitri. "Can I borrow your phone?" I asked.

He handed me the phone. I stared down at the keypad for the longest time.

I finally looked back up at Dimitri. "I'm going to make a phone call. When I'm done, why don't we go for a run and train a little?" I asked him. "You need to blow off some steam from this whole thing and after I make this phone call, I'm going to need to as well."

He looked at me confused. "We haven't trained in a while so that's probably a good idea," he admitted.

"Yeah. It's been weeks since I trained. Stupid near death experiences. They're throwing off my work-outs," I joked.

Dimitri almost smiled. Almost. "So running yes. You need to burn off all the calories you've gained sitting around and eating for days," he joked.

I briefly forgot that Sonya and Viktoria were here. I forgot about everything but me and Dimitri. "I can think of an excellent way to burn calories that doesn't require any running," I said to him suggestively.

I could see him forget about everything except for me. He pulled me close to him. "I might take you up on that," he says as he kisses me. The kiss is just picking up when…

"Eew!" Viktoria and Sonya said at the same time.

"I definitely just saw tongue. Great now I'm traumatized!" Viktoria complained.

Dimitri and I broke apart, embarrassed that we had forgotten about the two sisters. "No one said you had to look," I pointed out.

"We were in the middle of a conversation when you all of a sudden start sucking his face. Who saw that coming?" Viktoria retorted. "Ugh! I never wanted to see my brother do that."

"But I love it when your brother does that," I teased.

Viktoria clasped her hands over her ears and stomps out of the room. Sonya quickly followed. I grinned and laughed to myself.

Dimitri chuckled and pressed his lips to mine once again. I threw his phone on the couch. "Screw the phone call," I said.

"Eew! Aunt Roza and Uncle Dimka are kissing! Uncle Dimka is going to get the cooties," Paul screeched as he disappeared in the kitchen. I heard laughter come from the kitchen.

Dimitri broke our kiss and laughed. I leaned my head on his chest. "I guess this isn't the best place for privacy," he said.

"We could take this upstairs," I suggested winking at him.

"Not right now. I don't want to distract you from your phone call," he told me, but he didn't pull back so we were still standing very close to one another.

I groaned and looked at the phone as if it alone held all the evils in the world.

"Rose what are you going to do?" Dimitri asked me concerned.

I took a step back from him and retrieved his phone. "Stay here," I ordered.

I ran to our room and rifled through our luggage, finally finding the piece of paper that was given to me a long time ago. Then I went back to the living room.

I dialed the number that was on the piece of paper.

On the third ring, someone answered. "Hello?" They asked.

"I have a favor to ask you old man."


	10. Chapter 10

"What is it Rose? What do you need?" my father asked, surprise coloring his tone. I guess that shouldn't surprise me. This is the first time I've talked to him since the day I graduated.

"Can I meet up with you somewhere? Dimitri and I need to talk to you about something. We need your help," I grudgingly admitted.

"Ah. So you're still with Belikov?" He asked, his disapproval ringing through loud and clear.

"Yes. Dad please help us with this," I pleaded.

Maybe it was the fact that I was practically begging or maybe it was me calling him Dad for the first time ever, but after a long silence, he finally answered. "Rose I'm in Russia. I don't know how much help I can be," he told me.

I breathed a huge sigh of relief. "Well I guess the odds are in our favor, because me and Dimitri are in Siberia visiting his family," I told him.

He groaned. "Meet me at Золотая скрипка in 3 hours," he told me.

"What is Золотая скрипка?" I asked.

"In English it's the Golden Fiddle, but the sign for the diner will be in Russian. See you in three hours," he told me as the line went dead.

I turned to Dimitri. "We're meeting my father at the Golden Fiddle in three hours," I told him. He nodded. He knew about my father's reputation as well as I did. I started to tap my foot impatiently and I must have looked nervous.

"The sun will still be up then, so we won't have to worry about running into any Strigoi," he said, thinking that's what I was nervous about Strigoi.

I had been more worried about seeing my father again. His mention of the Strigoi reminded me that I never asked him my question the night before.

"Dimitri… What happened to Tasha?" I asked unsure if I wanted to hear the answer.

"I briefly saw her. She tried to compel me into letting her turn me. I was focusing on killing Strigoi, so she wasn't able to make eye contact and successfully compel me. She went off to find you, but when you staked that one Strigoi, the one that looked fifteen, she retreated into the forest," he told me. "I don't know where she is now, but Roza I promised you she won't hurt us. I won't let her."

His words rang with sincerity. I hugged him and pulled him close to me. I locked my hands so that he would have a tough time getting me off of him. "Who was the Strigoi you staked?" Dimitri asked me curiously.

I shrugged. "Bartholomew I think a Strigoi said his name was. Why?"

Dimitri stiffened. "Bartholomew Lionardo?" He asked.

"Could have been. Why?"

"It makes sense. Why the Strigoi were too surprised to move. Why they actually looked a little scared of you," he said, more to himself than me.

"Okay that's cool. It's not like I have no idea what's going on. Just keep talking to yourself," I said sarcastically.

"I'm sorry Roza. But if it was that Bartholomew, what you did was a big deal. It's another thing that will get you into history books. You never cease to amaze me," he said affectionately.

"I'm glad you cleared that up. It would be really annoying to be out of the loop," I said a little cranky. In defense of me, he wasn't explaining himself at all.

"Rose. Bartholomew Lionardo was the first moroi to become a Strigoi," Dimitri finally told me. "He is like the king of all Strigoi. More powerful than any of the others. He was millennia old. He's killed so many guardians and moroi in his life time and nobody has been able to take him down."

"But he looked like he was so young when he was changed. And he was a moroi. How did he become so powerful?" I asked.

"As you know, age gives Strigoi more power and more control over the skills they have. He was the first Strigoi, but it was almost fifteen years before he figured out how to create another Strigoi. He had convinced a couple of moroi to turn during that time, but not before he knew he had enough strength to control them. Plus the time period he was changed in, people were settled down with several children at his age," Dimitri explained.

"I can't believe it. It's not possible," I said.

"But it is. I'm sure Tasha would have wanted to find the strongest Strigoi possible to take you down. I don't know how she found him or what she offered him to get him to help her, but I'm sure if Tasha had her way, it was him," Dimitri said.

"She probably told him I'm a threat to the Strigoi community," I said rolling my eyes.

"Rose if you took down Bartholomew, every Strigoi is going to see you as a threat to the Strigoi community. You've proven what you can do," he told me. "If I were a Strigoi, I would be terrified to see you."

Now I knew Dimitri pretty well. I knew when he was lying to me. And I could see that he absolutely believed his words. I didn't understand how I earned this reputation. I killed a couple of Strigoi and all of a sudden I'm in history books as this bad-ass Strigoi slayer. I've always wanted to be a renowned guardian, but it's a little overwhelming being famous.

I sat with Dimitri's arms wrapped around me until we had to leave. When it was time to go, we reluctantly broke apart and walked out to the car. It took about thirty minutes to get to the Golden Fiddle. We were a little early, so we sat in the car, holding hands and just talked. With everything going on recently, we haven't had much time to just sit and talk. It was nice.

Too soon, it was time to go inside the diner to meet Abe. I took a deep breath as we walked inside. We went to decide the fate of the bastard that got Viktoria and Sonya pregnant.


	11. Chapter 11

Dimitri and I walked into the diner hand in hand and saw Abe sitting in a booth. He was in a ridiculous, expensive gray suit with a yellow and blue striped tie. He had to have been suffocating because it was at least 100 degrees in this diner.

The diner itself was extremely shady. It was the place where you would see people doing drug deals under the table. I could see why Abe chose this for our super-secret meeting place.

We sat down and were met with an awkward silence.

"So Rose, how have you been?" Abe asked me.

"Oh I've been great. I mean if you don't think about the Strigoi attacks, or the attacks on the queen, or Tasha becoming Strigoi, or her killing Eddie to become a Strigoi. Other than those things, I'm just dandy," I told him in my most bitchy tone.

Abe didn't acknowledge what I said. "Ah yes. I heard about Natasha Ozera and the recent Strigoi attack," he said. "I just didn't know you were involved with all of that."

"Yeah. Tasha's kind of after me."

"Why would Tasha be after my sweet innocent daughter?"

I glanced at Dimitri. "Because she's in love with Dimitri and wants me to break up with him so she could have him to herself. When she tried to kill the queen, she was using my stake so that I would be framed for the murder. She would have gotten me out of the way, and she wants to..."

I looked at Dimitri, unable to say the rest. "She wants to turn me. She tried during the Strigoi attack," Dimitri finished.

Abe gave us a calculating look. "So the attack... She led that?"

Dimitri and I nodded. "How many Strigoi?" Abe asked.

"Probably around thirty and all together we killed over twenty," Dimitri answered. "Rose was amazing."

"Please I only killed like six. You killed nine," I pointed out.

"Yeah, but you killed Bartholomew Lionardo," he pointed out to me.

Not once during our conversation have I seen Abe surprised, but his jaw dropped at Dimitri's statement. He turned to face me. "You. Killed. Bartholomew. Lionardo?" Abe asked.

I shrugged. "Allegedly. No one really knows if it was really him. I just heard a Strigoi call him Bartholomew and then when I killed him a lot of Strigoi stared at me. They almost looked scared."

"Well I would be scared if you killed the most powerful Strigoi in the world," Abe pointed out.

"Okay. We didn't come here to talk about my Strigoi kills," I said grumpily.

"Why are we here? You said you needed my help with something?" Abe asked.

I glanced at Dimitri. "We need to make someone have an unfortunate accident. We know that's exactly your area of expertise," I told him.

"My youngest sister Viktoria is pregnant. The same bastard that got her pregnant got my other sister Sonya ready. It recently came to light that this guy, Rolan may have intentionally damaged the condoms so that the pregnancy would occur," Dimitri said, trying to stay composed.

"We need to get revenge on him for doing this to them. He took advantage of them," I said to Abe.

Abe didn't argue at all. In fact he looked a little excited at the prospect of causing Rolan great bodily harm. "What did you have in mind?" Abe asked.

"Well Rose wanted him to fall down some stairs, but I don't think that's enough. I want that bastard to pay," Dimitri said.

I felt like now might be a bad time to remind him that right before the first time we had slept together, he told me that we don't punish people this way. I fought to avoid my smile as I remembered.

"You have to let me go," I begged. "Don't you see? Don't you see how Jesse has to pay? He tortured her! He did horrible things to her."

Dimitri wet some gauze and dabbed it to the side of my forehead. It stung, so I apparently had a cut there. "He'll be punished, believe me. And the others."

"With what?" I asked bitterly. "Detention? This is as bad as Victor Dashkov. Nobody does anything around here! People commit crimes and get away with it. He needs to hurt. They all need to."

Dimitri paused his cleaning, giving me a concerned look. "Rose, I know you're upset, but you know we don't punish people like that. It's ... savage."

So much for savage. I guess everything change's when it's about someone getting your sister's pregnant and when you're not being overcome by spirit's darkness.

"What are you smiling at Rose?" Dimitri asked me.

Oops. Busted. "Nothing," I said as I shook my head to get rid of the memory.

He shot me a confused look, but turned back to his conversation with Abe. I didn't pay attention until I hear Abe say, "We could stage a fake Strigoi attack. Get him alone and then wreak hell on him," Abe suggested.

Dimitri immediately fell in love with this plan.

"Will you be there?" Abe asked.

"No," I answered before Dimitri could.

"No?" Dimitri asked, both annoyed and surprised.

"No," I confirmed.

"Then what am I supposed to do?" Dimitri asked.

I knew he wanted to be there, but I felt it would go by better if it was just Abe and his henchmen did it. They had the experience to do it without a problem. As for what he could do, well I would be more than happy to keep him busy, but that is absolutely not something I can stay in front of my father. I bit my lower lip, and tried to let Dimitri know what I was thinking.

Judging by the blush that swept across his lips, he knew what I was suggesting. He groaned as he thought about it. "Rose, I have to be there. That bastard needs to pay!" Dimitri said.

"And they will. But you don't need to play a part in that. You can just enjoy what comes next," I said to him suggestively.

He sighed and threw his hands up in defeat. "Fine. I won't go with Abe tomorrow."


	12. Chapter 12

The next day, Dimitri's nerves were on the edge. I had full confidence in Abe's ability, but Dimitri didn't share my confidence. Even I couldn't distract him.

At one point, I saw Dimitri try to leave the house. "Where are you going?" I asked him innocently.

"I'm going for a run," he told me. Really in all black. How dumb does he think I am.

"Mind if I join you? I haven't worked out in a while," I said to him.

Dimitri groaned. Busted. "Rose I can't just sit in here and do nothing," he pleaded.

I walked up to him. "And I can't have you tied up in any of Abe's crazy schemes. I can't let you go and risk getting hurt. You're too important to me. Don't just sit around. We really should go run and work out. It would be good for both of us," I pointed out.

He dropped his head so our foreheads were touching. "Okay. Let's go get changed," he sighed.

I grabbed his hand and we went back to his room. We quickly changed. We ran at a comfortable pace to town, circled the village, then ran back.

"Let's sprint the rest," Dimitri suggested when we were maybe a quarter of a mile away from his house. I was exhausted already, but I didn't want to look weak, so I pushed my body. No matter how hard I pushed myself, Dimitri was faster.

"How. The. Hell. Do. You. Run. Like. That?" I panted.

"Practice," he told me.

"That's not true Comrade or I would easily have been able to keep up with you. You've been making me run ridiculous amounts since I returned to St. Vladimir's," I pointed out.

"Yes, but I never took two years off of school or had three near death experiences in a row to delay my fitness training," he retorted.

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever. What do you want to do now? Obviously not weight training, but maybe some hand to hand combat?" I asked.

He nodded in agreement and for the next hours, we were all business. This was one of the first times that I took Dimitri out more than he took me out. I felt a burst of pride when I realized how far my skills have come.

"One more," Dimitri insisted. I think he was determined to beat me in the last one, because he has said 'one more' for the last ten. I groaned internally. The sun was rising which meant we had been at this for hours. Abe had wanted to stage his attack as close to sunrise as possible so it wouldn't look weird that Rolan was left alive. I don't know if I should be happy that they came up with this plan or weirded out that they took so much care planning the details.

As we got into our positions facing one another, I briefly thought about throwing it and letting Dimitri win, but he would know. Plus I was so sore, I was sure he would win.

When he lunged at me, I side stepped his lunge. While he was still recovering, I pushed his side causing him to stumble. I pushed him to the ground. Before I could get a good grip, he rolled over and pinned me to the ground. I gave up struggling acknowledging I couldn't get him off of me.

He grinned at me. "I win," he proclaimed. I expected him to get up, but he didn't. He leaned down close to me and kissed me. The kiss was just picking up.

"Eew. Can you guys ever keep your hands to yourself?" Viktoria asked. Dimitri broke this kiss, but stayed on top of me. I guess if I think about it, Viktoria was a little right about me and Dimitri. But hey, it's not like either of us could help it.

"You know you've ruined every kiss we've shared since we came to Russia right?" I asked her.

"Happy to help. Geez every time I see you guys your making out. It's gross. Someone needed to do something," Viktoria said matter-of-factly.

"What do you want?" I asked a little annoyed.

"Abe Mazur is here to see you two. He's grinning from ear to ear, so I think he has good news,' she told us.

Dimitri and I glanced at one another and were on our feet in an instance, sprinting towards the house.

Abe was sitting on the couch in the living room. "Done," he said when we walked in.

"Done? Just like that?" Dimitri asked just to make sure.

Apparently Dimitri's question was an invitation for Abe to tell us about all the injuries this 'Strigoi' left on Rolan.

"Well he has a couple of broken ribs and a serious concussion. His pretty face isn't all that pretty anymore. But all of the injuries are things that he can easily repair. He'll never look the same and he's a little shorter if you know what I mean, but he will live," Abe explained.

Shorter? What did he mean? "What did you do? Cut off his feet?" I asked stupidly.

Abe laughed, and I saw Dimitri stifle a laugh. I looked up confused. "What's so funny?" I asked slightly annoyed.

Abe stood up laughing, shook his head, and then left without saying another word.

I stared after him, shocked. "I feel like I'm missing something," I whined.

Dimitri laughed outright. "Rose. When Abe said he was shorter, he wasn't talking about his height," Dimitri explained.

"Then what… Oh!" I said as the light bulb went off in my head. I started blushing furiously.

Dimitri laughed. He didn't seem able to control himself. "Remind me never to get on Abe's bad side," he choked out in between laughs.

I rolled my eyes at him. Then I realized we were alone. I looked at him, and I think he caught up with my mood quickly. There was a spark in his eyes when he returned my gaze.

We were already sitting side by side, so it wasn't difficult to twist enough to kiss him.

His lips met mine in a hungry and passionate kiss. He scooped me up and without breaking the kiss, brought me to his bedroom.


	13. Chapter 13

I couldn't believe our stay in Russia was over already. Sometimes I wish I could just stay here forever, but then I think of Lissa and how much danger she would get in without me, and I brush all thoughts of staying from my mind. It's so nice to be able to spend time with Dimitri, but they come first. And we are determined to make our schedules match so we can spend more time with one another. It shouldn't be that hard.

We boarded the plane. The slutty… I mean underdressed flight attendant immediately caught Dimitri's eye and winked at him. The nerve of her. Seriously God. Is it too much to ask for to have an ugly flight attendant? Just once? I force Dimitri into the window seat, so the flight attendant literally has to go through me to get to him. Not that she didn't try, but she didn't succeed. Next time we go to Russia, we are not flying. I don't care if we have to swim the Atlantic Ocean, we are not flying.

Once the flight attendant walked away, I turned to Dimitri. "You know, you're too damn good-looking for your own good," I told him grumpily.

"Roza. You know I love you. If you hadn't suddenly turn all red and jealous, I never would have realized she was flirting with me," Dimitri told me.

"It's just annoying watching all those pretty girls hitting on you," I said before I could stop myself.

"Roza, I'm marrying you! Not them. You. Because I love you and you are the only girl in the world for me," Dimitri promised.

I felt all warm and fuzzy at Dimitri's words. "Only girl? Does that mean there's a guy for you Comrade? You can tell me. I won't get jealous," I said. I elbowed him gently and winked at him.

He rolled his eyes at me. "In case our sex life hasn't made it obvious, I'm not interested in men," he told me.

"Care to reinforce that?" I asked raising my eyebrows suggestively.

"We're on a plane!" Dimitri said horrified.

"So?" I asked.

"I am not having sex with you on a plane," he said. His voice made it clear it wasn't open for discussion.

"Okay. If you really want me to think your gay. That's fine," I said to him.

He groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. "You know I'm not gay. This discussion is over," he said.

"It's okay to admit you're interested in men Comrade. Really, I'm not judging… well only a little," I said. I knew I was pushing buttons, but this was just too much fun to pass up.

I saw the look on his face and I realized he was actually considering it.

"Well I'm going to the bathroom Comrade. Let me know if you want to join me," I got up and winked at him. Five minutes later, I heard my stall open and Dimitri walked in.

Thirty minutes later, we sat back down into our seats.

"I can't believe you got me to do that," he told me.

"It wasn't all me Comrade. You agreed," I pointed out.

He groaned again and took a deep breath. "Rose I have to ask you something," he said seriously.

I looked at him suddenly concerned. "What's wrong Dimitri?" I asked.

He determinedly didn't look at me. "Spit it out. You look like you're choking," I said to him.

"Nothing's wrong. It's just. We never set a date for the wedding and I was wondering if you had given it any thought," he said quietly.

I giggle. "That's what's bothering you?" I asked.

He looked at me. There was something in his expression and I couldn't figure out what it was. "There's something else. Something else that's really bothering you. What is it?"

"You know me too well sometimes," he sighed. "It's just, when I proposed, you looked so excited and then the next day, it was like it didn't even happen. Roza, I swear if your feelings have changed, I won't try to force you into this. I would understand, or at least I would try to. If you don't want to get married, or you don't want to be together, I'll accept it. I promised."

I was staring at him, my jaw practically on the floor. "I promise I won't keep bothering you. We can go back to our old role as mentor student, or we can just be training partners, or we could be whatever you want. I'm really…" I broke him off with a kiss.

"Dimitri Belikov. You're worried that I don't love you?" I asked incredulously. He didn't look at me, which I took to be a confirmation. "Dimitri I love you more than anything in the world. This may come as a surprise, but I'm not just with you for the sex," I pointed out. "Of course I want to get married. I was ready to marry you before you even asked the question. Hell I would have married you when we were still at the Academy if I had the choice. I love you and nothing is going to change that. The reason I haven't thought about a date yet is…" I bit my lip.

"What? What is it?" He asked me curiously.

"Well there are a couple of things," I admitted. When I saw his face drop, I hastily added, "Hear me out."

He didn't look up at me. I lifted his chin so he had to look at me. "The first one is… well I kind of want to go on a honeymoon and I never knew how to bring it up. I wasn't sure if you would want to go on one. The second is, I want your family to be there and I don't know when they would be able to come. I'm sure I could get Abe to help out with plane tickets, but I don't want to have the wedding until they can be there," I explained to him.

Dimitri kissed me. "I love you so much Roza," he said as he looked at me seriously. "There's something else isn't there?"

I blushed, unsure of how to go on. "Do you remember after I got staked? The discussion we had with uh… Lissa?" I asked him.

He nodded and a small grin flit across his features. "Of course. How could I forget?"

"Well, for that reason in particular, I'd rather have the wedding sooner rather than later…" I told him. "While we were at Lehigh, Lissa told me she figured out how to do it. She said it takes quite a bit of spirit, and that she would love to give it to us as a wedding gift. It's not like a normal healing where she has to heal, it's more like she transfers spirit into a medicine that we need to drink before having sex," I explain. I looked into his eyes that were filled with love and compassion. Before I knew it, I told him everything. "I want to be able to have children with you, and I don't want to wait, but I don't want to leave Lissa unprotected just so I can have my happily ever after. And I don't want to damage your reputation. You know as well as I do that dhampir relationships are frowned upon. I've already ruined my reputation with my party girl attitude, but there's no reason I need to put that blemish on your record. I know that they come first, but sometimes that seems like too much. This time in Russia has been amazing. No one gave us weird looks for walking around holding hands. No one was whispering about us behind our backs. It was nice for a change. I want that life. But I know Lissa needs to be my priority and I hate that sometimes. I just want to be with you forever."

"Roza," he whispered. "Everything will be okay. We will be together. We will get our happily ever after together. I promise."


	14. Chapter 14

The second we stepped off the plane, Dimitri called his mother to find out when they could come to America. He found out that a little after we had left, Sonya had her baby. A little boy that she named Alexie. Olena wanted to wait until the baby was at least 6 weeks before trying to get him on a plane.

Dimitri immediately agreed with her. I could see he was a little sad about having just missed the baby, but there wasn't anything he could do about it. He brushed it off. He figured if we got married in the middle of August, that would be six weeks and it would give us two weeks for our honeymoon before I had to go to school with Lissa. She was commuting, but I still had to attend her classes with her.

The first thing we did was tell Lissa. That's where we made our huge mistake. We spent hours every day trying to escape from Lissa, who insisted on being part of every miniscule detail. We spent hours slaving over the wedding. The only reason I kept my sanity was because until the wedding, I was given a shift at the Court. Dimitri and I were usually paired up, so we would spend our shifts patrolling the Court borders, always on alert, but still sharing some kisses and conversation. It barely compensated for all the stress of planning a wedding in six weeks, but it was some time away from Lissa.

At one point, we had been looking at napkins for an hour. I kid you not. Napkins. When Lissa had briefly left the room, I turned to Dimitri. "Quick, let's run while we can. Let's elope!" I whispered to him fervently.

"I don't think Lissa's wrath would be worth it," he whispered back.

"I do. Plus then we won't have to slave over a book of napkins for another hour," I pointed out.

"Oh come on. It's not that bad," he told me.

I raised my eyebrows at him, both of them because he still hadn't taught me how to do one. "Okay, I mean it could be worse," he said.

"Nothing can be worse than this. Spending three hours picking the candles for the center of the tables wasn't even this bad!" I said annoyed.

"This is not as bad as when we had to decide the table cloth design," he pointed out.

"I think it is. At least those all looked different. Lissa wants us to choose between napkin colors that look exactly the same," I said grumpily.

"Just point at one and pretend we put a lot of thought into picking it," he suggested.

I closed my eyes and pointed at a color. It was a pale blue, almost white. I looked at the caption underneath. 'Alice blue,' it read. I looked up at Dimitri curiously. I actually really liked the color. I hadn't noticed it before.

He looked at it interestedly. "I actually really like that color," he admitted. And with its pale blue color, it will look with the table clothes we picked out. The blue in the table cloths should accent the napkins better," he said grinning a little.

"Great! Now that we've gotten that out of the way, I think Lissa said she wanted to do one more thing before she gives us our freedom and lets us out of this prison…" I said.

Just then Lissa walked in. "Hey!" She exclaimed.

"I mean lets us out of her lovely home," I quickly added.

Lissa rolled her eyes at me. "The last thing you have to do is easy. And it's not something you can do here. You have to talk about it. You have to figure out what the first song you dance to will be," she told us.

"So we're free?" I asked excitedly.

"You have two weeks until the wedding. I would think you would be more interested in making sure everything is just right," Lissa said annoyed.

"As long as we get to say I do, I will be completely satisfied with the wedding," I said.

Dimitri grabbed my hand and looked at me fondly. "I completely agree," he said.

"Get a room," Lissa told us as she walked out.

Dimitri and I grinned at one another. We got up and walked out.

"So what do you want our first song to be?" I asked him curiously.

"How about Behind Closed Doors?" He joked.

"That's an excellent way to give my father a heart attack," I said laughingly.

"What it's not that bad," he said innocently.

"You don't fool me Comrade. What do you really want to be our song?" I asked.

"Well how about Carrying Your Love With Me?" He asked.

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. "That's a country song isn't it?" I asked.

He didn't look at me. "Maybe."

"No. No way Comrade. Our first wedding song will not be a country song," I insisted. We bantered a little more, when the perfect song came to my mind. "This I Promise You," I said quietly, too quietly for Dimitri to hear.

Dimitri looked at me curiously, confused by my sudden serious expression. "What?" He asked.

"This I Promise You," I said a little bit louder.

"I don't think I know that song," he admitted.

"I give you my word. I give you my heart. This battle we've won. And with this vow. Forever has now begun…" I sang softly. "Just close your eyes. Each loving day. I know this feeling won't go away. Till the day my life is through. This I promise you."

"Over and over I fall. When I hear you call. Without you in my life baby. I just wouldn't be living at all," Dimitri sang. "I guess I do know that song."

"Do you like it?" I asked him. The song was meant for us. I really wanted it to be our first song, but I didn't know if Dimitri would agree.

"I love it," he said as he pulled me closer to him.

"Then I think we found our wedding song," I said as I pressed myself against him.

We sealed our decision with a kiss.


	15. Chapter 15

"Hathaway! Belikov!" A guardian called from the doorway. "I'm sorry if I interrupted something," she said with a blush.

Dimitri and I had just been training. He had just tackled me and pinned me to the ground, so I could understand the conclusion the guardian jumped to.

Dimitri rolled over and jumped up. "You didn't interrupt anything. We were just training," Dimitri explained. "What can I help you with?"

"Her Royal Highness Queen Tatiana has requested an audience with you. With both of you," the guardian said nervously. Fear curled in the pit of my stomach, and I tried to hide it. Could it be? No it can't

I glanced at Dimitri confused and he shrugged. "Can we shower first?" I asked. We both were pretty gross from training. The guardian blushed again. I considered my words and had to hide my smile. She thought I meant we were going to shower together… which we might, but I hadn't meant to imply that in my words.

She shook her head. "The queen demanded your immediate presence," she explained.

Dimitri nodded and started following her out. I walked by his side. "I wonder what she wants," I whispered to Dimitri so the guardian in front of us couldn't hear.

"I have no idea," Dimitri answered honestly. "Maybe it's about the wedding?"

I sighed. "Why would Tatiana want to talk about our wedding?" I asked confused.

"I don't know. What else could she want to talk to both of us about?"

"I don't know… But what if you're not safe. I mean what if she found out that you were more than my mentor at St. Vladimir's? What if it's about that?" I asked terrified. If Dimitri could still get in trouble for what we did, I don't know if I could get through that. I needed him by my side after everything we've been through.

"Honestly I think she might have figured that out a long time ago. Why wait until now?" He asked me. His words helped me calm down. It made sense that she would've talked to us earlier, but what else could she want?

"Calm down," Dimitri said soothingly. "Everything will be okay." He grabbed my hand and squeezed it gently. I squeezed back. I appreciated the calming affect holding his hand had on me.

When we were outside the queen's room, I glanced and Dimitri and took one last deep breath before we stepped inside.

"Guardian Belikov. Guardian Hathaway," Tatiana said nodded at each one of us in return. We bowed to her.

"There are several things I must address here," Tatiana said after a moment. I appreciated that she was jumping right in. I really wanted to know why we were called here.

"The first thing I would like to address is the rumors that have been going around Court," Tatiana said.

I glanced at Dimitri terrified. He stiffened and waited for Tatiana to continue.

I guess Tatiana became queen for a reason, because she was observative and smart. She scrutinized us for a moment before rolling her eyes at us. A small smile played on her lips. I had to blink a couple of times to make sure this was really Tatiana and not some Tatiana look-alike. "I am not talking about the rumors about your relationship. I've known about your relationship since you were at the Academy. As far as I'm concerned, you are no longer her mentor and you are no longer his student. So it is completely legal for you two to be together," she said. "But no, the rumor I would like to address is the one about Bartholomew Lionardo."

I groaned internally. I was going to kill Abe. Tatiana turned her gave to me. "Is it true that you killed him?" She asked.

I shrugged. "Allegedly. I don't really know what he looks like, so I'm not sure," I told her honestly.

"She did!" Dimitri said excitedly. "It must have been him from the Strigoi's reactions. They looked at her like they were scared of her, and I've never seen a Strigoi scared before."

Tatiana was studying me. "What did he look like?" She asked me.

"Uh. Really pale. Red ringed eyes. You know he was a Strigoi," I told her snarkily. I couldn't help myself. I loved making smart-ass comments.

Tatiana sighed at me. "Guardian Hathaway, will you just tell me what he looked like?" She asked, her voice edged in annoyance.

"Fine. He had brown hair, and grey eyes. They were a dark grey, almost black. And he looked young. Maybe fifteen or sixteen," I told her.

"Did he have any other obvious features?" Tatiana asked.

I pulled up a visual of the Strigoi I had fought. "He had a small birth-mark or something next to his left eye," I recalled. "It was like a squiggly circle."

Tatiana closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, a huge smile came across her face. It's official… Definitely a Tatiana look-alike. "You killed Bartholomew Lionardo," she said simply.

"But how can you know?" I challenged.

"The thing you thought was a birthmark? It was actually the first signs of a fatal disease among moroi. Synko Gregor's Syndrome. It's a very slow death and a very painful one. When his mark first showed up, Bartholomew turned to avoid facing his death. All moroi in our history who have fatal diseases are carefully monitored, because the disease is so rare. We would know if another other than Bartholomew had turned Strigoi," she said with a shrug. "You may not fully realize the extent of what you did, but the moroi world seems to constantly be in your debt. I know I have said several things in the past to suggest otherwise, but I am honored to have you serving my people."

My jaw dropped. How do these things keep happening to me? I'm nothing special. Any guardian could have done it… or could they. I don't think I would have been able to do it without Dimitri and Lissa. They unknowingly inspire me to do better and to keep them alive. Not a lot of guardians have what I do. We are supposed to lay down our lives for the moroi, and that is not something I can do. I need to protect Lissa and Dimitri and that's why I stay alive.

My realization must have flashed across my face, because Dimitri squeezed my hand and looked at me proudly. I looked up at Tatiana. "What exactly does that mean… for me?" I asked her, unsure of what happens now.

"It means I trust you more with the task ahead of me," Tatiana said, utterly serious. "As you know, in four weeks, Vasilisa starts school. I know that in a week, you two are going to get married and go on your honeymoon. Correct?"

I nodded, trying to figure out was going on here. Was she trying to say I'm an unsuitable guardian because I'm leaving Lissa? I've thought that a million times, but Dimitri is always there to reassure me. it's one thing when I'm thinking it, but another when the queen confirms it. But it doesn't make sense that she would praise me for killing Bartholomew just to berate me.

"Well… I need you to do something for me while you're on your honeymoon," she started.

"Name it, Your Highness. We would be happy to help," Dimitri said formally. She told us. I was not expecting that.


	16. Chapter 16

I sat on my bed and watched as Dimitri packed our stuff. I was still too shocked to help him. In fact, I was too shocked to do anything but sit there and watch. It's been almost a week since we got the news and every time I thought about it, I lost all coherent thoughts.

"Roza, are you sure you're okay?" He asked, concern etched in his voice.

I nodded. I still hadn't recovered my voice.

"I know this is a bit of a surprise…" Dimitri started.

That's when I found my voice. "A SURPRISE? A SURPRISE? I THINK THIS IS A BIT MORE THAN A SURPRISE!" I screamed at him.

"You're right. This is huge, but we can't sit around in shock. Tatiana gave us a job, and we need to do it without anyone interfering or finding out about it. I know you're upset, but we need to do this. And I know you won't be happy until we do," Dimitri said wisely.

"I just…" I stop feeling selfish.

"What is it?" Dimitri asked.

"Nothing," I mumble embarrassed.

Dimitri stopped packing and pulled me into his embrace. "You know you can tell me anything," Dimitri told me quietly.

"I just don't want this to ruin my honeymoon… our honeymoon. I was looking forward to it and now we have to spend it searching the world," I said a little grumpily.

"We'll still be able to spend a lot of time together. We'll still get to have a real honeymoon. There's just something we have to do in between our time together," he told me.

I sighed, knowing that this was something we had to do. I watched as he finished packing.

He pulled something out of the closet and turned to me. It was his tuxedo for the wedding. We were getting married tomorrow. I suddenly felt overwhelmed with excitement. I couldn't wait to marry Dimitri.

He put the tuxedo on top of his overnight bag that lay near the door. I groaned, remembering Christian's orders that I stay away from Dimitri tonight. He was coming to kidnap Dimitri… I mean take Dimitri to a bachelor party. After that, Dimitri, Anthony, and Christian were staying at a hotel. Christian and Anthony would probably be here any moment. I walked over to Dimitri, and pulled his lips down to mine.

Our kiss was just picking up when the doorbell rang. I knew it was them, but I pressed Dimitri closer to me, not giving him the chance to break away. He twined his fingers in my hair and pulled me closer, if that was possible.

The doorbell rang again. We both blatantly ignored it. "You don't need to go to a bachelor party," I said against his lips.

I took the moan in the back of his throat to mean he agreed. We were so enveloped by the kiss that we didn't notice that Christian and Anthony, Dimitri's old friend from school, had entered the room. I briefly wondered how they had gotten in our apartment, then I realized they probably used the spare key. We definitely noticed when they tackled us to separate us.

I glared at Christian who was trying to restrain me. I didn't try to fight him, because I knew between him and Anthony they would succeed in keeping me and Dimitri apart. I sent Dimitri a look and he nodded at me. I slumped in defeat and Dimitri did the same. Anthony and Christian lightened their holds on us and that's when we made our move.

We both twisted out of our captor's holds and bolted for the door. We didn't get far. Anthony recovered too quickly. "We're taking Dimitri to a bachelor party, so get over it!" Anthony warned me. "Going to relive the glory days." Dimitri groaned. I decided I didn't want to know about the 'glory days'.

I groaned. I knew I wasn't getting away with this. I groaned. "Fine," I said grumpily. Anthony and Christian held on to Dimitri as they dragged him out. I gave him one last quick kiss before he was pushed into the waiting car.

I looked at my clock. I had an hour before Lissa was going to come take me out to some mysterious location. I decided to walk around Court for a while.

I was so distracted with thinking about my wedding that I walked right into someone.

"Oh. I'm sorry…" I started, realizing I didn't know his name.

"Mikhail. Mikhail Tanner," he said to me. He reached out his hand. I took it and shook it. I couldn't remember where I had heard his name before.

Then it came to me. "You were with Ms. Karp, before she turned Strigoi. Then you went to find her to kill her," I blurted out without thinking.

I saw a sad look flit across his face. He didn't confirm nor deny my statement, but he didn't need to. "I'm sorry," I said to him softly. He sat down on a bench near us and after a moment I joined him.

He looked up at me. "You knew her?" He asked me quietly.

I nodded. "She was my teacher. My best friend, Lissa was like her. They both specialized in spirit," I told him.

"Spirit's darkness made her go insane. It wasn't her," he said desperately.

"I know. I saw that with Lissa. She couldn't help what the darkness did to her. It was frightening to see, but I knew it wasn't really her. I've also experienced what the darkness does," I told him. "We discovered I could take the darkness from her and it was awful." I winced at the memory.

Mikhail looked at me shocked. "You took the darkness?" He asked.

I nodded. "I almost went insane from it." I didn't say anymore. I didn't need to. He had seen the effect of spirit first-hand.

Another moment passed in silence. I sighed as I stood up. "I'm sorry, but I have to go meet up with Lissa," I told him.

"I never caught your name," he said before I left.

"Rose Hathaway," I said. The last thing I saw before I turned around was the shock on his face.

I had a small smile on my face as I walked back to my apartment. Lissa was waiting in the lobby of my apartment, tapping her foot impatiently. I really have got to find a more difficult hiding place for my spare key!


	17. Chapter 17

Lissa ended up taking me to a club. She got absolutely wasted. I didn't drink much, because I could just picture the look on Dimitri's face if I showed up to our wedding hung-over. Every time I thought about that, I giggled, which attracted several odd glances. I don't care if people think I'm insane.

I am also constantly wondering what Dimitri is doing. If Christian takes Dimitri to a strip club, I am going to kill him. Christian not Dimitri. Dimitri would never go there on his own free will. Between my giggling and my angry expressions as I plot Christian's death, it's no wonder people stayed away from me.

Lissa came up to me very, very drunk. She had another drink in her hand. "Rose. Rose you should go and meet a guy. It's your last chance. After tomorrow, you're stuck with Dimitri. You're going to be like the stick that's stuck in the mud and won't come out. What's the saying? Stick in the mud, but literally. Well not literally because you're not a stick," Lissa giggled.

I was torn between amusement and annoyance. Lissa was hilarious when she was drunk, there was no point in denying it, but I also know if she was sober, she wouldn't be trying to convince me to sleep with some random guy.

"I am perfectly happy being a stick in the mud. I've only ever been with one guy and I plan and staying with him for the rest of my life," I told her.

Lissa being extremely wasted and not in her right mind, decided it would be a good idea to stand on the table and scream at the top of her lungs, "ROSE IS A STICK IN THE MUD!" She frantically pointed at me so everyone was staring at both of us.

"Come on Liss, get off the table," I told her. I tugged on her arm gently to pull her down. I had greatly overestimated her coordination and she fell head first off the table. Some guy swooped in and caught her before she hit the ground.

He helped steady her and gave her an odd look. "I think you've had one drink too many," he said to her jokingly.

I smiled at him. "Thanks for your help," I told him.

"You should probably get her home before she does anything else," he suggested. Another man walked over to his side.

"So you're the stick in the mud?" The man asked with laughter in his voice.

"I guess so. My friend seems to think so, since I'm getting married in the morning," I explained.

"I think you should get your friend home," the first man suggested.

"Oh. She's really not that bad. She's just much more outgoing when she's drunk," I defended her.

"I can see that," the second man said pointed to somewhere in the crowd. That's when I realized Lissa wasn't with me anymore. Some guardian I was. I couldn't even take care of my charge in a club. Not that I was alone. There were at least ten other guardians dispersed throughout the club. I was definitely going to hear hell from them later about Lissa's little speech.

I followed where his finger was pointing and saw Lissa dancing with a random group of guys. I quickly ran over to her. "Come on Liss. We have to get home," I told her.

"I don't wanna go home," Lissa slurred.

"Come on," I said once again, tugging on her lightly. She stumbled after me. One guardian pulled up in an SUV. Lissa and I got in. I don't know how they did it, but every guardian discretely left the club in a matter of seconds.

When we were seated, Lissa turned to me. "Hey Rose. Hey Rose Rose Rose. Hey Rose." She said drunkenly.

"What's up Liss?" I asked.

"I have a secret to tell you. Don't tell anyone. You're name… it's the same as a flower," Lissa laughed.

I couldn't help myself, I burst out laughing. As did several of the guardians in the car.

"Thanks Liss," I said, trying to calm down.

Her next statement didn't make it any easier. "Rooooooose. Roooooooooose. She was the girl on the Titanic. There was definitely room on the door for Jack. Why did she let Jack die? Jack was hot! But Rooooooose, don't tell Christian," Lissa slurred. Her eyes were drooping slightly. I don't know how she managed to fall asleep in a car full of guardians that kept bursting into fits of giggles every now and then.

"I won't. I promise," I told her. I might have to tell Dimitri and suggest he mention it to Christian though. This night was just too priceless for no one to know about it. I love loopholes.

When we arrived back at Court, we woke up Lissa. One of the guardians offered to stay with me and Lissa, but I refused. I knew once we got up to my apartment, we would be fine.

I had hoped Lissa would fall back asleep, but apparently walking to my apartment really woke her up. "Rose do you know what time it is?" She asked seriously.

I glanced at my watch. "10:00 in the morning. Which means we should be asleep," I told her.

"Noooooo! It's twilight!" Lissa squealed. "Do you know what Twilight is? It's a book… about vampires. But shhh… No one can know we exist."

"No one knows we exist Liss," I assured her.

"Oh they know. They just don't believe it. They believe the weirdest things. Humans are so weird. Don't you agree? I mean they write books about vampires. And they're not even right! Do you know what happens in Twilight? Do you Rose?" Lissa asked. I was impressed with her coherency right now. She was slurring her words like crazy, but I could still understand her.

"No what happens in Twilight?" I asked her, playing along.

"Come here," she said waving me over.

I walked over to where she was sitting and sat down next to her. She leaned close like she was going to whisper in my ear. "I CAN'T REMEMBER!" She shouted. I had been expecting a whisper so her loud voice threw me off. I jumped slightly and she giggled.

I could see Lissa getting tired again. "Liss, you must be getting tired. Let's get some sleep," I suggested. She nodded and immediately curled up on her makeshift bed.

I stood up and lay down on my bed. I tried to fall asleep, but it was a lost cause. I couldn't stop thinking about the wedding. The next time I saw Dimitri, it would be when we were getting married. Somehow that amazing man was going to become mine. Hours must have passed before I finally succumbed to sleep.


	18. Chapter 18

We woke up early the next day. Or rather, I woke up early and woke Lissa up.

She was not a happy camper and she was extremely hungover. And I don't mean she has a small headache hungover. I mean dropping a pin on the ground sounds like a cannon firing to her hungover. She had big bags under her bloodshot eyes. After swearing revenge on me, she stumbled to the bathroom to take a shower.

After hours of having my nails reshaped and polished, my hair brushed and styled, and my face changed into a mask of pure beauty, it was finally time. Time to walk down the aisle. Lissa helped me step into my dress. She and Mia stepped into their pale green bridesmaid's dresses. Lissa's had an extra sash tied around her waist, distinguishing her as my maid of honor. Lissa was still slightly hungover, but was in a better mood now that the effects had worn off a bit. She and Mia told me over and over again that I looked beautiful. I think they were almost more excited than I was, which is saying something, because I was pretty damn excited.

My father walked in and grinned at me. "Ready?" He asked.

I smiled brightly. "I've been ready for a long time," I told him honestly. He helped me walk to the lobby of the chapel.

Mia was the first to go. She had her arm wrapped around Anthony's, who was one of Dimitri's friends from school and one of his groomsmen.

Lissa grinned at me as she took Christian's arm. Christian was Dimitri's best man. She walked down the aisle next.

Then, before I knew it, it was my turn. I gripped my father's arm tighter as I walked through the doors to the church. I didn't notice all the people standing in the pews. All of my focus was on Dimitri. He truly looked like a God standing at the front of the church. He looked polished and handsome in his tuxedo. But that's not what attracted my attention. It was the look of love on his face. The look that was filled with compassion and caring. The look that was trapped in my gaze. While we were too far away to have a conversation, we were communicating in our own way. He left no room for doubt. He was mine as I was his and we were going to prove it today.

We were already down the aisle and Abe passed me over to Dimitri. Dimitri took my hands and squeezed them lightly. We turned to face the priest. To be honest, I have no idea what the priest said. I always have trouble paying attention to anything but Dimitri when he is with me. His hand was sending shocks of heat through my body.

Suddenly everyone was staring at me. The priest, Dimitri, and while I couldn't see it, everyone in the pews had their eyes on me. "I do," I guessed. I saw the amusement in Dimitri's eyes and I knew he had guessed that I was not paying attention.

The priest turned to Dimitri. "Do you, Dimitri Belikov take Rosemarie Hathaway to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward until death do thou part?"

"I do," Dimitri said, confidently.

"Then by the power vested in me by the holy spirit, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride," the priest said.

Dimitri pulled me to him and our lips met. It was a soft gentle kiss that ended too soon. It's a good thing Dimitri has so much self-control, because I almost forgot we were standing in front a church filled with people.

We turned to face the crowd, both of us sporting goofy smiles on our faces. As we walked out of the church, people threw rice at us. Most of it missed us, but there was some well-aimed throws from the guardians in the crowd.

We headed to the huge ballroom at Court that the queen graciously gave us as a wedding present.

The reception was beautiful. Dimitri and I were congratulated by everyone. And by everyone, I mean everyone. People I didn't even know congratulated me and Dimitri. It seemed like hours passed before everyone had come to see us. Finally, it was time to eat. Dimitri and I sat side by side as our guests were served dinner. For the first time in my life, I was not hungry. I am too full of happiness to be hungry.

Dimitri didn't eat much either. He kept turning to me and kissing me lightly. "You're my wife," he told me happily.

"You're my husband," I told him equally happy.

He grabbed my hand. "I can't believe this. I never thought that this would be possible," he told me.

"Me neither. I never thought I would be able to have you and still be a guardian. Now I get to have both," I told him euphorically.

"I am yours, Mrs. Belikov," he grinned as he said my new name for the first time.

I smiled back at him. "As I am yours."

"We're married!" He said excitedly.

"Yes. We are!" I agreed.

He kissed me lightly. "I love you so much!" He told me.

"Oh good. I thought you married me because you felt bad for me," I joked.

He rolled his eyes at my joke.

Then Lissa pulled on my arm. I turned to face her. "It's time to cut the cake," she told me.

Dimitri and I stood up. We held the knife together and cut ourselves the first piece of cake. Like most new couples, we shoved the first bite of cake in one another's mouths. Or rather, Dimitri shoved a piece in my mouth and I was so distracted, I missed and it hit his chin. He chuckled softly and bent down to my level. I put a piece in his mouth.

There was applause and the cake was taken away to the kitchens to be properly cut. When everyone had eaten their own slice of cake, it was time for our first song.

As we danced to This I Promise You, I felt content, as if my life was complete. I knew that as Dimitri looked into my eyes, he meant the words of the song. He was making those promises to me, just as I was making those promises to him. We were binding ourselves together in every way possible.


	19. Chapter 19

We were on a plane again. I know I swore I wouldn't ever go on a plane again, but I am okay with this one. Our flight attendant is a man. A very cute man. Nothing compared to Dimitri, but he's not unfortunate looking. He's also flirting with every girl on the plane.

I felt a secret sense of satisfaction when he came up to me and Dimitri. "Would the lovely lady like any refreshments?" He asked. He had a soft British accent.

I couldn't help but giggle as I felt Dimitri tense up next to me. "I'm fine, thank you," I said, shooting him a huge smile. He grinned back at me then moved on to the next aisle.

"Karma is a bitch Dimitri," I told him smugly. I finally caught a glimpse of his face and I couldn't help the giggle that escaped me.

His face was all scrunched up and red. His tongue stuck out slightly from his mouth. He looked like he was concentrating and angry at the same time.

He growled at me. "You don't have to egg him on you know," he told me grumpily.

"I was just being friendly," I told him innocently.

He muttered something in Russian under his breath. "What did you just say Comrade?" I asked him.

"Nothing," he said shrugging.

"It was obviously something," I pointed out. "You're my husband. We're not supposed to have any secrets."

"I just said you were being a little too friendly," he admitted.

"You know Comrade. You're really cute when your jealous," I said grinning at him.

He rolled his eyes, but he loosened up. "Who said anything about being jealous?" He asked.

I raised both eyebrows at him, because he STILL hasn't taught me how to raise one. "Right, so I guess that face you made was…" I trailed off.

He sighed. "I was not jealous!"

"Denial."

"I am not in denial."

"Dimitri, it is okay to admit you're jealous. I am jealous of all of those flight attendants and waitresses and check-out clerks that flirt with you every time we go out," I said putting extra emphasis on every time. Literally. We can't go outside the Court wards without someone hitting on him. It can be extremely frustrating.

"Maybe just a little bit," he said refusing to make eye contact with me.

I pulled his head down so he had to look at me. "I love you Dimitri," I promised him.

"I love you Mrs. Belikov," he told me.

"So are we on our honeymoon yet?" I asked with a mischievous smile.

He looked at me confused for a moment, then I saw the lightbulb go off in his head. "Oh no. I don't think so. I am not doing that again ever!" He vowed.

I bit my lower lip, pretending to be upset. "Roza. I think you can last until we land. Baia isn't that far away," he told me.

I sighed and cuddled into his chest. I knew this was an argument I wasn't going to win.

I looked back up at him. I just wanted a kiss. A kiss that he willingly gave to him. I forgot we were on a plane and I know he did too. Well that was until the asshole flight attendant decided to come to our aisle and clear his throat. Seriously? There are about a hundred aisles on this plane and he had to come to ours. I take back what I said. I am not okay with this flight. I hate airplanes.

I looked up at him, a little annoyed that he was interrupting our kiss. "Can I get you anything?" I asked.

He grinned. "I was just about to ask you the same question," he told me.

That's when my stomach grumbled. Dimitri and I ordered something to eat and drink. Then I lay back down in his embrace. It didn't take long for both of us to fall asleep.

Dimitri kissed me gently. "Wake up sleeping beauty," he said with a smile.

We were on a beach in the middle of the day. I looked around me.

I had fallen asleep in the sand. Suddenly I was tackled by a very small something. I turned to see my daughter laughing at me. She had her father's eyes, but my hair.

"Mommy. Is it lunch time yet?" She asked me with a brilliant smile.

I grinned as we turned to the picnic table that I hadn't noticed before. I was almost positive it wasn't there earlier. We sat down and began eating.

That's when all hell broke loose. Tasha appeared at the end of our table. In my head, I knew I was dreaming, because Tasha couldn't be out in the sun. But I was frozen in fear and I couldn't break myself out of the dream.

Tasha lunged for my daughter. I ran to get there first, but I couldn't reach her. No matter how fast I ran, she was just out of my reach. I turned to Dimitri for help, but I watched Tasha bite into his neck. The next time he stood up, he had a red ring around his eyes. I closed my eyes, trying not to believe.

I was never going to hold him again. I was never going to…

"Roza! Roza! Roza!" Dimitri said as he shook me. "Roza! Wake up!"

I sat up so quickly I got a little dizzy. "Roza, are you alright?" Dimitri asked me concerned.

"I… yeah… Just had a bad dream," I told him as I looked into his eyes. His eyes that weren't tainted by the mark of Strigoi. His eyes that were a chocolate brown and could sooth me no matter what. I felt myself calming down as I lost myself in the depth of his eyes.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked. The plane began its descent and he hastily buckled my seatbelt for me.

"When we get to the car," I told him.

He nodded. Ten minutes later, he was leading me to his rental car. It was a Honda… Big surprise. "So did you want to tell me about the dream?" He asked me. So I told him everything. Every detail.

When I had finished, he looked at me comfortingly. "That will never happen," he promised me.

"How can you be sure?" I asked him. I wanted to believe him, I just wasn't sure if I could.

"Because I have someone worth living for," he told me with love in his eyes.


	20. Chapter 20

We arrived at Dimitri's house a couple of hours later. He refused to let me drive this time. His family had managed to catch an earlier flight back, so they were already back, probably unpacking. We were going to spend two days with them.

As we were walking up to the door, I froze as a familiar nausea crept over me. "Strigoi," I told Dimitri through my teeth.

He immediately stiffened and both of us pulled out our stakes. I went to the side of his house and saw three Strigoi. None of them were Tasha, so I just assumed they were here for a snack. I prayed with all my might that there were no Strigoi in the house as we attacked them. We each took out a Strigoi as we took them by surprise. It wasn't hard to finish off the third one together. The nausea left when we killed the last Strigoi.

"I don't think there are anymore. My nausea is gone," I explained to him. We quickly rushed into his house. Luckily everyone was safe and sound. They hadn't even known there were Strigoi outside the house.

Dimitri quickly called the Alchemists to come clean up the Strigoi. Even if we were in a mostly dhampir community, there are still humans. And the sun just set and we couldn't leave the bodies there for hours. While we waited, me and Dimitri sat outside and discussed our mission.

A girl came. She had the golden lily tattoo on her cheek that distinguished her as an alchemist. She had chin length blonde hair.

I smiled lightly at her. "Hello," I said nicely.

She looked at me, but didn't smile. "I'm Sydney Sage. I'm the alchemist," she told us.

"I'm Dimitri Belikov," Dimitri told her.

"I'm Rose Ha-Belikov," I said, grinning. It was my first time saying my new name out loud. I was Rose Belikov.

Sydney dripped a liquid on the first Strigoi than stood up and looked at me confused. "Were you about to say Hathaway?" She asked uncertainly.

I nodded and looked at Dimitri. "We just got married," I explained to her.

She nodded to show she understood, but she kept throwing me confused glances. "Is it true?" She asked after she had gotten rid of the second body.

"Is what true?" I asked her.

"All the stuff we've heard about you…" Sydney started. "Did you really save the queen, and kill ten Strigoi at once, and kill the first ever Strigoi?"

I nodded. "Actually she killed thirteen Strigoi at once," Dimitri corrected. Sydney looked even more surprised.

"I hope my Strigoi skills will come in handy as we hunt down our mystery person," I said to Dimitri when Sydney was concentrating on the third body.

Dimitri sighed. "We don't even know where to look," he pointed out.

I groaned in frustration. "I know," I said. "I figure maybe we can start with Abe. If anyone knows the secrets of the moroi world, it would be him."

"Are you talking about Abe Mazur?" Sydney asked.

I nodded. "Do you know him?" I asked.

"Yes. All the alchemists do. We call him Zmey," she explained. "How do you know him?"

"Zmey?" I asked curiously.

"It's Russian for a type of snake," Sydney explained.

"The snake in the Garden of Eden was called Zmey," Dimitri added.

"Yep. That's definitely my dad. Tricky as the snake," I said as I sighed.

"Your father?" Sydney asked shocked.

"Yeah, it came as a bit of a surprise to me too," I told her honestly.

"What do you need his help with?" She asked me curiously. "Usually, he doesn't deal with people like you. Mostly illegal sales and stuff. He sells a lot of information."

"Well we sort of need information," I said. "We couldn't get into our records. Besides the queen assured us that there were no records in the moroi world of what we are looking for."

"The alchemists have records, some that are more extensive than the moroi," she paused as if she realized what she was saying. "I might be able to get permission to look at the records if this is something that might help keep the moroi and the human world separate."

"Isn't it enough to know that the moroi know something you don't?" Dimitri asked. "The last alchemist I met certainly gave me the impression that the alchemist want to be all knowing."

Sydney made a face at his statement. "The alchemists do not want to be all knowing. We just want to have as much information as we can so we can keep humans safe from the evil creatures of night."

Her words sunk in and I couldn't help myself. "Evil creatures of night? You're not talking about moroi and dhampirs are you? We're not like Strigoi!" I yelled annoyed.

"You're right," she conceded. "Strigoi are worse."

"We are not evil. We dedicate our lives to fighting that evil. How can you stand there, knowing nothing about us and tell us we're evil. You don't know what we've been through. You can't possibly understand anything about us. We are willing to lay down our lives to protect the world from evil!" I shouted. I knew I was being irrational, but I was very upset. I may be a lot of things, but evil was not it.

Sydney looked at me shocked as if she hadn't been expecting my outburst. "I… I…" She started.

I felt the anger drain from me. "Don't. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have shouted like that," I told her.

"You may be right though. We pass judgement on your kind before we even know anything about you," Sydney said quietly. She looked like she was troubled, like something I had said was challenging her beliefs. Which I guess it kind of was.

"Did you mean it when you said you could help us?" I asked her hopefully. I hoped my screaming at her wouldn't influence her decision.

She nodded at me. "What do you need help with?" She asked.

"We need to locate someone. We have no idea where they might be, or what their name is," I said hesitantly. "Now I realize there's not much to go on…"

"Do you have anything to go on?" Sydney interrupted.

I glanced at Dimitri. He nodded. "We're looking for Eric Dragomir's illegitimate child."


	21. Chapter 21

Sydney just stared and stared and stared. "Eric Dragomir?" She asked as a strange look came across her face.

"You know him?" I asked her.

"I don't know him," she said evasively.

"But you recognized his name," I pressed. I know that she knows something.

She hesitated and bit her lip.

"Please! It could give you invaluable information about the moroi world. It will change our whole world," Dimitri told her.

"I just know that records concerning Eric Dragomir were recently stolen from the alchemist's archives. We have everything online, so we didn't actually lose anything. And it wasn't anything big, just old financial records," she explained. "Really whoever did it greatly underestimated the alchemists. We would never be so stupid to not have back-ups for all of our files."

"What kinds of financial records?" I asked her.

"Some expenses in Vegas. I would have to look into it more deeply into it to be certain, but I think it was something about an extra bank account he created," she told us.

"An extra bank account that could have been used for Eric's maiden and his child?" I asked.

Dimitri looked at me, shocked by the conclusion I came to.

"It could be," Sydney admitted.

Dimitri looked thoughtful for a moment. "Could you access those files from you laptop?" He asked Sydney.

"Yes. I would just have to look at the Alchemist's online archives. It's available to everyone… Well to all alchemists," she told us.

Dimitri nodded. "I know you're uncomfortable around our kind, but I would feel more comfortable if you don't try to leave until the sun is back up. Also, I think it would be best if you do your research near us so you can tell us if you find anything. You may need our help once you uncover the information," he told her.

Sydney stiffened but nodded.

We all headed into the house. We had to get back on a human schedule, so Olena immediately sent us to bed. Sydney who was offered the choice to sleep in the same room as Viktoria or to sleep on the couch, chose the couch without any hesitation.

After we made sure Sydney was comfortable on the couch, Dimitri and I headed to his bedroom. He closed and locked the door behind me. He was right in front of me in two steps. He pulled me towards him and crushed his lips to mine. Our honeymoon started.

I woke up the next morning in Dimitri's arms. It was hard to believe that this was going to be almost every day for us. He was still asleep and I spent a few moments staring at him. He looked so young and innocent when he sleeps. I couldn't bear to wake him up when he looked so peaceful, but I knew if I got up, I would wake him up. Hmmm… tough choice. I decided to stay in the extremely comfortable bed with the love of my life.

It wasn't long until he woke up and I smiled at him. "Morning sunshine," I told him brightly.

He grinned at me. "Good morning Roza," he said to me.

We lay for another moment, just basking in happiness as we looked into each other's eyes. "I love you," I said to him softly.

"I love you too," he said to me with a smile on his face.

Then there was a banging on the door. "Who is it?" Dimitri called.

"It's Viktoria. Can I come in?" She asked.

"Well I appreciate this view, but I don't know how much you would like it," I called before Dimitri could respond. Teasing Viktoria was something I would never get bored of.

"Eww!" She yelled annoyed.

"You asked!" I pointed out.

"You could have just said no," she told us.

"Would you have listened?" Dimitri asked.

"Probably not," Viktoria admitted.

"You should be thanking me then. I just protected your innocent eyes," I joked.

"Are you two dressed yet?" She asked through the door.

"Haven't even gotten out of bed yet if you know what I mean," I called to her. Dimitri lightly elbowed me and shot me a warning look. I gave him an innocent look.

"I must put extra emphasis on EWW!" Viktoria said. I couldn't help but giggle. I would never get bored of teasing Viktoria.

"We'll get dressed now. Is breakfast ready yet?" Dimitri asked.

"Yeah. Mom is setting the table now," Viktoria told us.

"Then we'll talk to you at breakfast okay?" Dimitri called.

"Okay," Viktoria said.

I didn't hear footsteps leaving. "Did you leave yet?" I called.

"No, why?" Viktoria called.

"You should go eat breakfast. We'll be down in a little bit," Dimitri told her.

"Why can't I wait for you?" Viktoria asked.

"Viktoria… You are aware that we're on our honeymoon right?" I asked her.

"Yeah, but what does that have to… oh," Viktoria said. "Eww!"

I chuckled, but finally heard her walk away. I turned to Dimitri with a mischievous smile on my face. He rolled his eyes at me. "I think you have too much fun teasing Viktoria," Dimitri told me.

"Don't even pretend that you don't find it funny," I told him with a small smile. He tried not to smile, but he couldn't hold it back. "Told you so."

He rolled his eyes. "Come on. Let's get dressed. I know you're hungry," he told me.

My stomach growled in agreement as we stood up and got dressed. When I looked down at my stomach, I paused. Dimitri looked up at me briefly concerned. "Are you alright?" He asked me.

"Yeah. I was just thinking. Lissa gave me that healing potion yesterday. We could have just conceived our baby," I told him with wonder in my voice. I looked up at him. "Do you think it worked?" I asked him anxiously.

"We'll know in a couple of weeks. Your period would come in two weeks right? So if it doesn't come within the week we get back to court, we can go to the clinic and confirm it," he said. "Lissa knows what she was doing. I'm sure it worked."

He came over to me and kissed my bare stomach before he brought his lips to mine.

We quickly finished dressing and headed to the kitchen holding hands.


	22. Chapter 22

We ate breakfast as we chatted with our family. It felt great to think of them as my family too. I was so comfortable with all of them.

I could feel a big smile spreading across my lips.

Dimitri shot me a confused look.

I shrugged. "I'm just happy," I whispered to him. He grinned back at me.

When we had finished eating, we kicked Olena out of the kitchen and washed the dishes. Sydney entered the kitchen then. She had a look on her face that told me she found something.

"What did you find?" I asked her.

"From what I was able to figure out, most of the records that were stolen had to do with an extra bank account under the name of Jane Doe. That's a generic name like Mr. Smith," she explained to us. "There's no way to track who that person was or find out anything about them."

"So we're at a dead end?" I asked frustrated.

Sydney shook her head. "I um… Found something else," she admitted.

I looked at her, waiting for her to go on. After a minute of silence, she finally spoke. "A couple of years after the account first opened up, it was transferred to a new bank account. The bank account was still under Jane Doe, but there was a next of kin reference on this account," she told us.

"Who?" I asked. I didn't even realize I was clenching Dimitri's hand until he put his other hand over mine and loosened my grip.

"Sonya Karp," she told us. I glanced at Dimitri. He looked startled.

"Does she have any sisters?" I asked.

Sydney shook her head. "No. And unfortunately she has a huge family. She has several cousins that are the right age to be the mistress," she told us. "Maybe would could go to her directly? The only problem is the alchemists don't have any records of her in the past several years."

"That's not the only problem," I said. I was upset. This mission was over before it even started.

Sydney looked up confused. "What do you mean?" She asked.

"Sonya Karp turned Strigoi," I told her.

"We'll just have to find her," Dimitri said with authority.

"How are we going to do that?" I asked skeptically.

"We can go hunting," Dimitri said. "If we attack Strigoi one at a time, between the two of us, we should be able to restrain them. Then we can ask them where Sonya is."

"And if we get attacked by a group of Strigoi?" I asked him with a sigh.

"I really don't think that will be a problem for you," he said. He hesitated for a moment. "Just make sure you protect your stomach through all this." He frowned. Neither of us had considered that when we had started our honeymoon. We didn't think that we would have to hunt down a Strigoi to solve the Dragomir mystery.

"There you go again. Thinking that I have some super amazing Strigoi killing powers. I don't. I'm just a guardian like you or like anyone else!" I told him annoyed. I didn't like getting credit I didn't deserve.

"Roza, you aren't like all of the other guardians," Dimitri promised.

"How can you say that?" I asked.

"Because, you have done more than any other guardian. It was you that killed two Strigoi with a dull sword. It was you that worked with a fire-using moroi and killed more Strigoi than anyone else at the Academy. It was you that saved the queens life. It was you that took on thirteen Strigoi. It was you that killed Bartholomew Lionardo. It was you that jumped in front of the bullet that was heading for my sister. You easily killed two of the Strigoi yesterday. Most guardians have a much harder time killing Strigoi. It comes naturally to you. You have a better understanding of good and evil which makes you that much more lethal," he told me with affection in his eyes.

I didn't know what to say to that, so I turned back to the pile of dishes that were waiting to be cleaned. "What can I do?" Sydney asked uncertainly.

"You can go back to wherever you are supposed to be doing alchemist business. I don't want you getting involved in this. You could get hurt," Dimitri explained softly.

"I am not about to let you leave behind a trail of Strigoi bodies. I'll come with you and I'll stay out of sight during the fight and then come and dispose of the bodies afterwards. Besides, you might need my help further along," Sydney said sternly.

I could see that Dimitri was about to argue, so I elbowed him in the stomach. "We would be grateful for your help with this," I told Sydney.

She nodded and walked out of the kitchen. Dimitri turned to me. "Why did you say she can come with us?" He asked me angrily.

"Because we had strict orders from Tatiana to involve as few people as possible. Sydney probably won't contact the alchemists until we find Lissa's sibling. From what I learned at Court, this isn't exactly an assignment that the alchemists would sanction. So Sydney must be doing this so she can uncover a secret of the moroi world. If we go on this mission, we might attract unwanted questions from a different alchemist as we take down Strigoi," I pointed out.

Dimitri couldn't find a single flaw in my logic. He knew I was right. He groaned in defeat. "We'll be able to keep her safe," I promised him. I knew that's what he was worrying about.

He looked at me. "With you protecting her, I know she will be safe," he told me sincerely. He leaned in to kiss me. I dropped the plate I was holding. Dimitri got soaked by the soapy water.

I got hit by a few drops, but nothing like Dimitri. I couldn't help but giggle. The foamy soap was all over his face. I scooped off globs of it so he looked like he had a beard and a mustache.

"Hello Santa Claus," I teased. A huge smile spread across my face.

He grinned back at me. He leaned down to kiss me, but I ducked out of his way. Unfortunately, I ducked right into his arms. The soapy water got all over my back as he wrapped his arms around my waist. Then we kissed my cheek, leaving me with a blob of soap on my cheek. I wiped away the soap from his lips. He pressed his lips down to mine. When we broke apart, I smiled. These were the moments I lived for.


	23. Chapter 23

Too soon, it was time for us to leave. We were sad to leave his family, and they were sad to see us go.

"I'll miss you!" Viktoria sobbed. Tears were streaming down her face. Her hormones had finally caught up with her. She hugged us both.

"I thought you were angry with me," I teased.

She gave me a watery smile. "No, just annoyed that you say things I would rather not hear about my brother. It's gross," she said jokingly.

"I don't find it gross," I said innocently. Viktoria rolled her eyes. Turning more serious, I said, "You'll have to keep me updated with what's going on with you and the baby."

"I will," she promised as she hugged me again.

Olena gave us a tearful goodbye, then we were off.

The first place we went was Novosibirsk. We weren't sure how to proceed, so we just walked around. Sydney walked a couple of feet ahead of us, while me and Dimitri trailed behind her holding hands.

After four days of questioning Strigoi and none of them knowing where Ms. Karp might be, we decided to wait one more night then head to a different country to look for her.

We were walking down an empty street. We turned down a dark alley and I felt the tension in Dimitri increase. "You need to lighten up Comrade," I teased, poking him.

He rolled his eyes at me. "We're hunting Strigoi and you're telling me to lighten up?" He asked sarcastically.

"Glad we understand each other," I said with a smile.

"Roza… This is…" He started to say.

I put my hand over his mouth to cut him off. A familiar nausea was creeping into my stomach. I didn't need to tell him, he knew me well enough to know what I was sensing.

I glanced at Sydney, who was still walking ahead of us, unaware that there were Strigoi somewhere. I saw something move in the shadows near Sydney and I started to run. Definitely more than one Strigoi. I got in the way just in time and my stake met the Strigoi's chest as she went for Sydney. Dimitri tackled the other Strigoi. I looked around. It looked like that was the only Strigoi left. Sydney quickly removed herself from the battlefield. I helped Dimitri restrain the Strigoi.

"Do you speak English?" I angrily asked the Strigoi.

"What does it matter to you?" The Strigoi spat.

"That would be a yes. We're looking for a Strigoi. Sonya Karp," I said in between my ragged breaths. It is not easy to restrain a Strigoi.

"Go to hell," he said through clenched teeth as he struggled against our hold.

I cut my stake across his cheek. This was the first time I actually looked at his face. He looked like Bartholomew. I knew they weren't related because the Strigoi was obviously human before he was turned. I suddenly had an idea.

"Do you know who I am?" I demanded. "Do you?"

Dimitri looked at me confused. He hadn't quite caught up to my train of thought.

"Why should I know who a lowly dhampir like yourself is?" He asked angrily.

"I am Rose Hathaway Belikov," I told him with an evil grin. Just like that he stopped struggling. I saw a flash of fear in his eyes. I was shocked that I had this effect among the Strigoi. I had just thought that would make him more likely to cooperate.

"Paris. She lives in Paris," he said to me.

"Where in Paris?" I asked harshly.

"I don't know," he told me. He was still too scared to insult me.

I glanced at Dimitri and Dimitri thrust his stake through the Strigoi's heart.

"I guess we're going to Paris," I said to him with a small smile.

He smiled back at me. Sydney came out of the shadows and started to dispose of the Strigoi. Dimitri took out his phone and booked us a flight to Paris.

"You know. I've heard Paris is very romantic," I said winking at him.

He grinned. "So have I," he said suggestively.

"Amazing place to spend a few days of our honeymoon right?" I asked with a smile.

He grinned and nodded. "We leave for Paris in three hours. When we arrive, it will be almost noon, so we'll have a few hours to enjoy Paris before we have to go hunting," he told me.

"Oh come on! Can't we wait one more day? Let's spend a night in Paris just for our honeymoon, not worrying about where Ms. Karp might be," I practically begged. "I don't want our whole honeymoon to be dictated by this missing child."

"Roza…" He started as he gave me a look.

I knew that look. It was the have you really thought about this look. "Don't. We could spend the night doing the various things couples can do in Paris. Then we can sleep during the day and be well rested for trying to find Ms. Karp. We could send Sydney to the spa. She could definitely use the stress reliever," I told him.

He hesitated. "Please?" I begged, batting my eyelashes at him.

He groaned. "Okay," he said.

"Okay?" I asked.

"Okay. I do want to have as much of a honeymoon as possible and this is a good way to do it," Dimitri admitted.

I grinned hugely. I was getting my way.

Sydney stood up from the second Strigoi body. "Let's go back to the hotel and get our stuff. We have a plane to catch," she reminded us. A couple of hours later, our plane was taking off. We were on our way to Paris. I snuggled into Dimitri's chest and look up at him.

Looking at him, it was easy to forget that we were looking for the last Dragomir or that we were hunting down Ms. Karp to try and get information out of her. All that mattered was that we were together on our honeymoon. We were heading to Paris, where we would be able to spend a night pretending it was an ordinary honeymoon. It was the best wedding present I could ask for.


	24. Chapter 24

We spent hours that night roaming around Paris. No one gave us a second glance as we walked around hand in hand. We weren't the dhampir couple. We weren't guardians under constant scrutiny. We were Rose and Dimitri and in that instance, we were like every other couple walking around Paris.

We were sitting on a bench near a giant fountain. A bunch of people passed us, obviously preparing for some type of show. One woman passed in a very skimpy peacock costume.

Dimitri glanced at her. "Reminds me of my bachelor party," he said without thinking. I don't think he realized he spoke out loud until he saw my angry expression.

"Excuse me?" I asked him. I was pissed off. "Where exactly did you go for your bachelor party? And what exactly did you do?"

"Roza. Seriously it was nothing. It's not a big deal," he told me sincerely.

"No. I want to know where you were that a half-naked peacock reminds you of your bachelor party!" I yelled.

Dimitri blushed a little bit and didn't meet my eyes. "I didn't want to go. Christian made me," he told me.

"I still want to know what happened!" I insisted.

"Christian took us somewhere that was kind of like a Vegas show room. There were… um… actors walking around in costumes. A couple of them were dressed like peacocks. Not that I was looking at them or anything. I just caught glimpses," he admitted.

I knew there was something he wasn't telling me. I could see it. "What aren't you telling me?" I challenged.

"Nothing… it's nothing," he told me evasively.

I just glared at him. "Cut the crap Comrade and tell me what it is that you're not telling me!" I insisted.

"Most of these actors were women," he told me. I could see I would need to do a lot of prodding. Something struck me about the way he said most of them.

"By most, you mean…" I asked.

"All of them," he admitted.

"And these women… These actors," I said. I put emphasis on actors so he would know that I didn't believe they were actors. "What exactly did they do?"

He refused to look at me. "They were strippers," he finally answered me. Seeing the look on my face, he hastily added, "But I didn't do anything. I literally sat in a booth in the corner of the room most of the night."

"Most of the night?" I asked.

"I… um… well Anthony had planned a little bit of a surprise for me," he said. I grimaced. I knew Anthony was trouble from the moment I met him the day before my wedding.

"Okay Comrade, why don't you just tell me instead of beating around the bush? You know I'll get it out of you eventually," I warned.

He sighed. "Well. We got there and the first thing I did was find a small booth in the corner of the room. I sat there for a while. Christian got absolutely drunk," Dimitri smiled at the memory. "Well, Anthony got a little tipsy. I didn't drink much because I wanted to be sober for our wedding. When Anthony got tipsy, he and Christian came up with an idea to make me enjoy my bachelor party more. They talked to the manager and he put a chair in the center of the club. He cleared out the center and Anthony and Christian pulled me towards the chair and made me sit down on it."

He paused. I knew I wasn't going to like what I heard next. "They had… uh… arranged for the actors to put on their own personal show for me," he told me reluctantly.

I closed my eyes and put my head in my hands. I had known it was going to be bad, but that didn't prepare me for this. I had a feeling I know what kind of show they put on for him, but I needed to know. "What did they do to you Dimitri?" I asked him without looking up. I don't know why I was doing this to myself. I was only going to upset myself further.

"They are strippers Roza. You know what they did," he said, avoiding my gaze.

"Answer the question Comrade," I ordered.

"I swear Roza. I just sat in the chair. I didn't look at them. I didn't ask them to do it. And when they… when they sat on my lap… I swear, I just pretended it was you. They didn't kiss me or anything like that. They just did what I'm sure Anthony and Christian thought I would enjoy. But I didn't not one bit. And the second I could, I escaped. I spent the rest of the night moping in the booth, feeling guilty about what they had made me sit through. You can ask Anthony and Christian. And once we had left, I yelled at them. I swear Roza, I hated every second of it," he told me sincerely.

I didn't answer and I didn't look up. He pulled me towards him and I couldn't stop myself from leaning into his embrace. "I believe you," I told him, without opening my eyes. I felt him kiss my forehead and a small smile played across my lips. "But I'm still mad at you!"

"How mad?" He asked with amusement in his voice.

I finally opened my eyes. "I guess you'll just have to find out," I told him suggestively.

He grinned at me. He leant in to kiss me, but I ducked out of his way. "I told you I was mad at you Comrade," I teased.

He was too fast for me though and soon caught me in a huge bear hug. He turned me so I was facing him and kissed me. "Still mad?" He asked when we broke apart.

"Very. I think it's going to take more than a kiss to make me less mad," I told him with a smile.

He kissed me again. This kiss was deep and passionate. When we broke apart, it was so we could walk back to our hotel. For one night, it seemed our lives could be semi-normal.

At least, it seemed normal until I felt the nausea.


	25. Chapter 25

Three Strigoi attacked us. Two of them immediately went for Dimitri, while the other went for me. I felt a brief moment of annoyance that Dimitri was always perceived as the threat, but I quickly brushed that aside as the Strigoi I was fighting lunged for me. She was clearly a new Strigoi. Her moves were jerky and sloppy. It only took about five minutes for me to stake her. Then I turned to Dimitri who was struggling with the two Strigoi. I staked one before he saw me coming.

The other wasn't distracted by his partner's demise. He was clearly an older Strigoi. He managed to kick me in the stomach. Dimitri looked up at me when he heard my gasp of pain. The Strigoi took advantage of Dimitri's distraction. He backhanded Dimitri, causing Dimitri to go flying into a wall. Dimitri crumbled to the floor. He did not get up.

I saw red, and attacked the Strigoi with a sudden fury. I studied his moves and started to use them against him. As I fought him, I remembered Dimitri's words from when we were still at the Academy. He had told me he wouldn't be able to be with me, because in a fight he would be more focused on me than Lissa. Karma's a bitch. It turns out he was more focused on me than himself this time. I couldn't stand the thought that he might die because of me. It caused me to lash out against the Strigoi. He didn't stand a chance. He was trying to take away my husband. I wasn't going to stand for that.

I took the first opening I could get and I staked the Strigoi. After calling Sydney, I quickly rushed over to where Dimitri was lying on the floor. I rolled him over gently so he was lying on his back. He was breathing, so I knew he was still alive. "Dimitri! Dimitri! Wake up! Come on Dimitri. Open your eyes!" I pleaded. He didn't listen to me. His eyes remained closed and his breathing got slower. I looked around, hoping Sydney would magically appear. I noticed a figure in the shadows. "Sydney?" I called out hopefully.

Someone stepped out of the shadows, and it wasn't Sydney. It was a middle-aged moroi man. He walked over to where I was sobbing over Dimitri. He looked at Dimitri curiously, like he was some kind of experiment. I crouched protectively over Dimitri. The moroi man walked right over to Dimitri. He tilted Dimitri's head sideways and placed his hand on Dimitri's temple. He leaned his head closer and I thought he was going to bite him for a second.

Then I noticed the look of concentration on his face. Slowly, life returned to Dimitri's features. The moroi pulled his hand back just as Dimitri opened his eyes.

"Dimitri?" I asked breathlessly as I jumped into his arms. He looked as good as new. His arms immediately wrapped around me. I felt protected in his embrace. "You're alive!" I shouted through the tears in my eyes.

"I didn't think I was going to make it," he admitted. He hugged me tighter and I didn't mind that I could barely breathe. I was so happy that he was here alive. He looked up suddenly and noticed the moroi man. "You healed me?"

I looked at Dimitri anxiously. He was so close to dying. Had he passed over and been brought back? "You're not shadow-kissed are you?" I asked him nervously. I was happy he was alive, but it would be tough if he was shadow-kissed. He's supposed to be the rational one in this relationship. If he's being influenced by spirit's darkness, then it could change him. Dimitri is terrifying when he's angry. I would hate to see spirit induced anger. And who knows how much trouble I would get in without Dimitri to keep me in line? I would be in moroi prison before I could say…

Dimitri cut off my internal babbling. "No, I just recognized the feeling from when Lissa healed me. Unless you magically developed magic, it must have been the only moroi around" he explained. I hated when he was so logical sometimes. "I didn't die. I may have come close to it, but I would never let myself die when I know you are waiting for me here."

I breathed a sigh of relief. That's what I get for being so dramatic. A warm feeling spread through me as I took in his words. "I'm so happy that…" I started. Sydney chose that moment to make an appearance, effectively stopping whatever I would say.

She muttered something about being woken up to clean up our mess.

She looked at the moroi man oddly, but started sprinkling her concoction on the Strigoi bodies. I turned to the moroi man. I had almost forgotten he was here. "Thank you. You have no idea how much this means to me," I told him.

"I'm surprised you didn't freak out when I healed him," the moroi man said with a frown. "Who's Lissa?"

"She's my best friend. She also specialized in spirit," I explained.

"Oh." That's all the moroi man said as a distant look came across his face. It gave me the impression his mind was somewhere else. "How did you know that he could have been shadow kissed?" He finally asked.

"I used to be shadow-kissed," I told him.

"Then she went and died like five times which broke the bond," Dimitri added with a small smile.

I rolled my eyes at him and resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at him. I focused back on the moroi man. "Who are you?" I asked curiously.

"Robert Doru. And you?" He asked, extending his hand

"Rose Belikov," I told him as I shook his hand.

I felt another burst of nausea. I groaned. Not now. I turned to Dimitri. "Up for one more Strigoi Comrade?" I asked as I jumped to my feet.

Dimitri gracefully stood up and we turned to face our opponent.

My jaw dropped when I saw who was standing before us. I looked at Dimitri and tried to communicate with him wordlessly. I think he understood, because I saw his eyes tighten slightly and he nodded. This was not going to be easy.


	26. Chapter 26

Sonya Karp was standing before us. I couldn't help the shock that radiated through me. We had been sure it would be difficult to find her, because there were so many Strigoi in Paris. We thought a couple of days at least. I also felt a small moment of bitterness. Was one night with Dimitri too much to ask for? I immediately pushed that aside.

Dimitri and I lunged for Ms. Karp. We managed to tackle her to the ground. Restraining her was another story. Her moves were wild and had no order to them. She kept managing to roll out from under our grips, but we managed to keep her on the ground. Dimitri pulled out his stake.

"Don't kill her," I warned him.

"I won't," he promised temporarily distracted. As he went to hit Sonya's cheek with the stake, he left her arm un-restrained. She hit his hand causing the stake to go flying. I quickly pulled out my stake and grazed it down her shoulder before handing it to Dimitri.

We finally managed to get Sonya pinned. She still struggled against us, but she couldn't get up. Dimitri grazed her cheek with the stake.

Sonya screamed in pain. "A relative of yours. They had a baby a couple of years ago. This baby was a secret, but you knew who they were. Who were they?" Dimitri asked. There was a power in his voice that would have made the strongest man crumble. Unfortunately, Sonya was a Strigoi and his words seemed to have no effect on her.

"Go to hell!" She spat at him.

"So original. Did you come up with that yourself?" I asked her sarcastically.

She turned to me as if noticing me for the first time. "Rosemarie Hathaway," she said to me with a sickly sweet smile. I heard Robert Doru gasp at my name, but I ignored it. "It's been too long since I've seen you. How's Vasilisa? I've been dying to see her."

"You won't get near her you bitch." I warned her angrily. If she thought she was going to lay a hand on Lissa, she was completely mistaken.

She cackled. I kid you not. I almost rolled my eyes at her. I can't believe she cackled. "I would be renowned amongst the Strigoi if I could finish off the last of the Dragomirs," she said almost dreamily. I heard Dimitri drop my stake as he punched Sonya, hard. She looked surprised for a moment.

"Tell us what we need to know," he ordered her.

Sonya spat at him and continued to struggle against our hold. After a while, I think she realized we weren't going to kill her. We needed her too much. I glanced up at the sky. I looked at Dimitri terrified.

"The sun will be coming up in an hour. If we move, she'll get free, but if we don't…" I trailed off. I didn't need to finish. We all know what happens to a Strigoi in the sun. If Sonya goes out in the sun, our mission would have failed.

Dimitri looked back at me nervously and picked up the intensity of his questioning.

While Dimitri and I were restraining her, she kept leaving her chest open, because she knew we would not kill her. What she wasn't expecting, and what Dimitri and I weren't expecting was for Robert Doru to try to stake her.

He walked to the side of Sonya where my stake lay forgotten. He picked it up and concentrated on it for a moment. His eyes were closed and his whole face was scrunched up. I had no idea what he was doing.

He walked over to where Dimitri and I were holding Sonya down. We left her chest completely exposed.

I glanced at Dimitri unsure about what we should do. We couldn't release Sonya, because that goes against everything we believe in. She could harm the moroi and we know they come first.

At the same time, we know if Robert Doru stakes her, we failed our mission. Our hesitation was all Robert Doru needed. He staked Sonya.

Suddenly, there was a bright white light and a surge of energy. It threw me backwards. I was slammed into the wall of a building, then I crumpled to the ground.

"Roza. Roza!" Dimitri yelled, shaking me a little. "Come on. Open your eyes! Roza!"

But I couldn't. Mostly because I didn't want to. Sonya Karp was dead. We failed the queen. So much for my amazing reputation. This just proved, I didn't deserve any of it. As I heard Dimitri's voice, pleading with me to return, I thought why bother. Why should I open my eyes when I have proven I am a failure?

Then as Dimitri stroked my cheek, I found myself wanting to wake up. The man before me didn't care about my reputation. I had to open my eyes for him. If I didn't, he would suffer and that is not something I can allow.

I pushed aside my pride and opened my eyes. I was immediately engulfed in his hug. "Oh Roza. You're alive," he sobbed.

I wiped away the tears streaming down his cheek. "I could never leave you," I promised him. "You gave me the strength I needed."

He smiled at me happily. He had no idea how much I meant my words. We heard a slight stirring behind us. I turned to see Robert Doru. He was sitting against the wall. Something was wrong with him. He had drool coming out of his mouth. His eyes were open, but they were glazed as though he wasn't with us. I briefly wondered what had happened to him.

I felt Dimitri stiffen. I wondered if there was another Strigoi, but no. I felt no nausea. I turned to Dimitri and followed his gaze. I couldn't help the gasp that escaped my lips.

"It's not possible," I managed to gasp out.

Dimitri didn't say anything. He just stared. We glanced at each other.

"This changes everything doesn't it?" I asked. He nodded.


	27. Chapter 27

I didn't know what to say, what to do. I just stared at the figure before us. Dimitri seemed to be as shocked as I was. Neither of us could move or say anything.

Because lying before us was Sonya Karp. But she wasn't dead like she should have been when she was staked. She was lying on the ground bawling.

I've never seen a Strigoi cry before, but she has to be a Strigoi. Right? I mean she was a Strigoi just a moment ago.

I waited for my nausea to kick in, to tell me she was a Strigoi. It never did. After several minutes, she looked up. That broke me out of her trance. The second I saw her hazel eyes unmarred by the red ring, I knew the impossible had just been made possible.

I ran over to her side. "Roza! Don't!" Dimitri called. He didn't realize what I had realized. He was still processing Sonya Karp as a threat.

I was never a maternal person, but seeing her there crying, I reacted on instinct. I wrapped my arms around her and let her cry into my shoulder.

Dimitri approached cautiously waiting for her to turn on me, but she didn't. She just cried and cried and cried. When she was done crying, she fell asleep exhausted.

I looked at Dimitri. "Find out from Robert what he did," I told him quietly. I saw Sydney standing against the wall, looking at me horrified. I had actually forgotten she was here.

"It's okay," I told her. "She's not Strigoi anymore."

"It's not… possible," Sydney gasped out.

"I know it's not possible, but it happened. Do you think I would be alive if she were a Strigoi. And look, the sun is coming up. She would be dead if she were a Strigoi," I told her.

"Roza, we really need to get back to our hotel. They'll both recover quicker there," Dimitri called to me. He wasn't having much luck getting through to Robert. He pulled Robert up and let him lean on his shoulder, while I pulled Sonya to her feet. She looked exhausted.

"It's okay," I told her soothingly. "We'll be back in the hotel soon. Then you'll be able to sleep."

She nodded at me. I took in the pale tone of her skin and the bags under her eyes. "We'll need to find a feeder," I told Dimitri anxiously. It wasn't something we had had to worry about when it was just us. But now that we had moroi with us, we had to make sure they got the nourishment they need.

Dimitri looked back at me concerned. "If Robert Doru lives in this area, he might have a feeder nearby. We'll have to wait until he recovers. Sleep should be the priority anyway," he pointed out.

I nodded at him to show him I agreed. I knew they both needed to sleep to get their strength back. They both looked dead on their feet. I hoped they would be able to hold up until we could find a feeder. I pushed those thoughts from my mind and focused on supporting Sonya.

It seemed like we had been walking for a long time before we finally reached the hotel. Thankfully, the elevator was empty, so we didn't have to trek up six flights of stairs. When we got to our room, Dimitri and I quickly figured out the sleeping arrangements. We have two bedrooms and three people that needed beds. Dimitri called the hotel room service and asked if they could bring us a spare cot.

They agreed to it and twenty minutes later, our problem was mostly solved. We moved the cot into one of the bedrooms. We decided to put Robert Doru on the cot and Sonya Karp in the bed. We would have liked to separate them, but we knew Sydney would not be comfortable with that arrangement. That left Dimitri and I outside on the couch and the floor. Naturally, we couldn't agree on who would sleep on the couch.

Dimitri wanted me to sleep on it, because he said I was still nursing injuries. The strigoi had gotten a good kick to my stomach, and I would be lying if I said it didn't hurt like hell. But I was too stubborn to admit it to Dimitri.

I told him he should be the one sleeping on the couch, because he is the one that almost died today. He was too stubborn to admit I was right.

So, both of us being too stubborn to sleep on the couch, ended up sleeping on the floor. I'm not going to lie, I probably would have found the sight of me and Dimitri sleeping on the floor with annoyed looks on our face hilarious; however, I did not appreciate Sydney waking us up a couple of hours later with her laughter.

I know I woke up with a murderous expression on my face… well if you call it waking up. I chucked a pillow in the direction of Sydney's laughter, rolled over, and went back to sleep. From the soft umph Sydney made, I knew I hit my target.

I heard Dimitri chuckle. I wasn't sure if it was at me or at Sydney.

"Why are both of you on the ground?" Sydney asked.

"Rose wanted me to sleep on the couch, but I wanted her to sleep on the couch. So, neither of us got our way and we both spent an uncomfortable night on the floor," Dimitri explained.

He walked over to me and shook me lightly. "Come on Roza. Wake up!" He urged me.

I grumbled at him and rolled over. Before I knew it, I felt his lips on my neck. They made their way up to my chin, then slowly to my lips. My eyes flew open as I kissed him back.

"Best wakeup call ever," I told him with a smile.

He chuckled and stood up. "Come on. We need to check on Sonya and Robert," he told me.

We went into their room. I was surprised to see that they were both still asleep. Sonya started to wake up when she heard us enter the room. For a brief second, she looked peaceful. Then you could literally see waves of despair and guilt crash down on her.

It was a heartbreaking sight and both Dimitri and I were at her side in a moment. It was easier to calm her down this time. She broke down and cried. But it wasn't as bad as last night. When she wasn't crying, she just stared at us while we comforted her.

We didn't know what to do. Sonya's situation was one-of-a-kind, and we tried to help her as much as possible.


	28. Chapter 28

Robert miraculously slept through Sonya's crying. He awoke a couple minutes after she had calmed down.

"How are you feeling?" I asked him kindly.

"Better. Not good yet, but better. I need some blood to get my strength back. Even small doses of spirit take a lot out of me and I used too much spirit yesterday," he told us.

Dimitri and I glanced at one another. I could tell both of us wanted to ask him about what happened, and how he turned Sonya back into a moroi. But we knew the most important thing was to keep them nourished. Our questions would have to wait. They come first.

"Do you know of any feeders nearby?" Dimitri asked him hopefully. I knew he was truly concerned for their well-being.

He nodded. "My maid is my feeder," he told us. "There isn't a moroi community in Paris. It would be too difficult to remain hidden, so that's what most of us have to do. Our feeders work as our household help. If I could just go back to my apartment, I could bring her back with me."

"I'll accompany you. It's dark out now and I wouldn't want to risk you running into Strigoi. Plus I know you said you are still feeling weak. I would feel better if I could come to make sure you walk there and back safely," Dimitri told him. There was no flaw in his logic, but I knew he wasn't being obvious. I knew what he was really up to. He was going to ask Robert about what he had done

Robert agreed and they left a few minutes later.

"Rose?" Sonya called, a few minutes after Dimitri and Robert left.

I walked into her room. "Everything alright Ms. Karp?" I asked her.

"I think at this point, you can call me Sonya," she told me with a small smile. It's the first time she's smiled since her transformation. She looked at me as though I alone held the answers to the world.

I nodded at her. "What can I do for you?" I asked her.

She shook her head, because she couldn't find the words. I just sat by her side and rubbed soothing circle into her hands.

"I couldn't help it," she told me in a small voice. "My powers, they were driving me insane. I didn't want to die, but I couldn't handle the magic. Oh, but the fate I chose was worse. Much, much worse. I never realized the extent of my decision until I was turned back. I would trade all the craziness in the world to take back what I did." Sincerity coated her voice.

"I know how your powers affect you. Lissa battles that every day," I told her comfortingly.

"Vasilisa? She cannot use her powers!" Sonya warned, her desperation being replaced by fear. "If she uses them, they will come back to hurt her!"

"We figured that out. She was on anti-depressants for a while. Then, I used to take it from her through the bond," I told her. I winced at the memories of my spirit-induced anger. It surged through me at the most inconvenient times.

Sonya studied me for a moment. "You're aura. It's not like it used to be. You still have a thin rim of shadows, but not like you did before. Before you were always covered in shadows. The darkness used to be overwhelming."

"Well… It's probably not like that because I'm not shadow-kissed anymore," I told her with a frown. "But I don't know why there would still be a rim, unless that's what gives me my shadow-kissed abilities." I was whispering to myself by the end of my sentence.

"You're not shadow-kissed anymore? But you need to protect her. There's an evil force out there. He was watching me, always watching," she said. She was starting to remind me of how she sounded before she turned Strigoi.

"We found him. He's locked up in moroi prison," I assured her.

"You found him?" She asked uncertainly. "How?"

I winced at the memory of Victor torturing Lissa. "He kidnapped Lissa. He wanted Lissa to use her powers to heal him of his disease. She would have to heal him throughout his life. But we found him using the bond I have with Lissa," I explained. "He can't bother you or Lissa or any other spirit user anymore."

Dimitri and Robert just returned. They walked into the bedroom as Sonya asked, "Who was he?"

"Victor Dashkov," I told her in a small voice.

"Victor Dashkov was the monster that was following me and the one that tortured Vasilisa?" She asked as though she couldn't believe her ears.

I nodded. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Robert stiffen.

"Well like you said, he's locked up where he can't hurt anyone anymore," she said to reassure herself.

"Watch what you say about him. Victor is a good man!" Robert said angrily through his teeth.

I glanced at Dimitri. I saw shock in his expression that mirrored my own. "You know him?" Dimitri asked, trying to remain calm. He hated Victor almost as much as I did.

"Yes, I know him. He never did anything if it wasn't for the greater good. He had plans to make the moroi world better. He did what he had to," Robert said defensively.

"DID WHAT HE HAD TO?" I shrieked. "He stalked Lissa and Sonya, making them feel unstable and paranoid. He kidnapped Lissa. He had moroi torture her. He gave her too much air and took away her air so she felt like she was suffocating. He almost killed Christian Ozera with his psi-hounds. He made his own daughter turn into a fucking Strigoi and you're defending him?"

"My brother is a good man!" Robert insisted. "He did what he had too!"

I felt Dimitri stiffen next to me. "You're… You're brother?" I asked Robert shocked.


	29. Chapter 29

"Well, he's my half-brother," Robert told me, his eyes still filled with anger.

I just stared at him. He was my worst enemy's brother. Mortal enemy, I quickly corrected myself. I was shell-shocked. I couldn't seem to make myself move. I couldn't make myself look away from the man who had just defended Victor Dashkov.

Dimitri recovered before I had. "Sonya, I think you should feed. It might help you regain some strength," he told her.

She nodded, stood up, and followed Dimitri. Before she left the room, she shot one last look of hatred towards Robert.

Then Robert and I were alone in the room. "Say what you will. My brother was a good man. He didn't abandon me when everyone else did. When I developed these strange powers, he helped me understand them rather than shunning me. He was a good man. Those things he did, he did them because he had to," Robert defended him.

I was angry that he was defending Victor's actions. "I don't understand how you can say what he did was okay!" I shouted angrily.

"He did what he had to. He wanted to reach certain goals and he had some obstacles in his way. He overcame those obstacles. Just because you don't agree with what he did, doesn't mean it was wrong," Robert shot back.

"Are you fucking insane? He tortured my best friend! He made his daughter… his own flesh and blood turn into a Strigoi! Why can't you see that that was wrong? You said before that Victor was the only person that didn't shun you. It was probably so he could manipulate your powers just like he had with Lissa. If you don't see that you're deluding yourself! Victor Dashkov is an evil, manipulative…" I shouted. I was cut off by a vase flying towards my face. I ducked down and it missed me by inches.

"You don't know anything about my brother!" Robert insisted.

"I know that he's evil! I don't need to know anything else," I told him.

Suddenly, the lamp on the end table slammed into my back. I fell to the floor, gasping for breath.

"Dimitri!" I shrieked when I had regained my breath. I got back to my feet and lunged to Robert. About a foot away from him, I felt like I had ran into a solid wall. I had the wind knocked out of me, but managed to keep my footing this time. What the hell? I lifted my hand tentatively and my suspicions were confirmed. He had created an invisible barrier in front of him. I noticed Dimitri in the doorway, taking in the situation at hand.

I tried to break through the barrier when Robert made the cord from the alarm clock on the end table wrap itself tightly around my neck. I couldn't breathe. I started to see black spots in my vision.

Then suddenly, I heard something fall to the ground and the wire loosened up. I could feel warm arms holding me. "Rose! Keep your eyes open," the voice told me.

I didn't want to though. I was so tired and I couldn't find my air. I felt cool hands on my face and suddenly, my throat cleared up. I took deep, rugged breaths filling my lungs with air.

"I fixed the major problem. She'll still have slight bruising, but she can breathe now," a female voice said. It took me a moment to realize that it was Sonya's voice. I finally opened my eyes. I saw Dimitri staring down at me, his eyes filled with love and concern. When he saw I was looking at him, he hugged me to him tightly. I melted into his embrace, breathing in the scent of his aftershave. It helped calm me down.

I glanced around and saw Robert lying on the floor. He didn't look conscious. I turned to Dimitri. "Did you knock him out?" I asked him in a small voice.

He nodded. "He was out of line," Dimitri said grimly. I could see how much it hurt him to have harmed a moroi.

"You shouldn't have done that," I told him gently. I hated seeing him upset because of me.

"I don't regret it. He should have known better than to hurt you. I wasn't going to stand here and let him kill you," he told me seriously.

"I love you," I whispered to him.

"I love you too," he whispered back. He pressed his lips to mine gently, but pulled back too soon.

I gave him an angry look. He chuckled. "Not right now. Later, I promise," he told me.

I sighed. "Later is so far away," I said annoyed.

Dimitri chuckled. "I know. But we do have some things to do for the queen," he pointed out to me.

I sighed. "Right," I agreed reluctantly. I glanced at Robert. "We never got to figure out how he restored Sonya. Guess we'll never know."

"Actually, I asked him on the way back from his apartment. He infused the stake with spirit. When a stake is infused with spirit, a spirit can restore any Strigoi to their former state, whether they were human, moroi, or dhampir," he explained to me.

"What do we do with him now?" I asked uncertainly.

Dimitri looked at Robert guiltily. "I was thinking we could just bring him back to his apartment. His maid will look after him there," he said. I knew he didn't like the idea of just leaving him there, but he couldn't come with us now. He was dangerous.

"Okay. That's as good a plan as any," I said to him.

"Where are we going to go? He knows where this hotel is, so we can't very well stay here," I pointed out.

He looked hesitantly at Sonya. "I don't know. We'll have to talk to Sydney and see what she thinks," he told me.

"Where is Sydney?" I asked curiously. I only just noticed she had been absent through everything that just happened.

"I made her wait out in the living room. I didn't want her to risk getting hurt," he explained with a frown. "I knew you wouldn't yell for me like that in less something was seriously wrong."

"Well, we might as well go talk to her now," I said. Dimitri helped me stand up. I couldn't have done it on my own, kind of like how I could have walked on my own, but I didn't complain. I know he was just trying to help me.

He helped me sit down on the couch by Sydney. He quickly debriefed Sydney on what had happened. "So where do you think we should go?" He asked her.

"It's obvious isn't it?" She answered him like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Dimitri and I both knew what she was going to say. She turned to Sonya. "Sonya, we need to ask you something," she said gently.


	30. Chapter 30

Sonya looked at Sydney confused. "What… What do you need to ask me?" She asked nervously.

"Can you tell us which cousin had a baby about fourteen or fifteen years ago?" Sydney asked.

"Lot's did," Sonya answered easily.

"This baby… Well, this baby was special," Sydney said. "The father would have been a secret."

"No. No, I don't have a cousin like that," Sonya insisted. We could all see she was lying.

"Are you sure?" Sydney prodded. "You seem like you know something."

Sonya looked like she wanted the ground to open up and engulf her. Surprisingly, she turned to me. Perhaps it was because she knew me before she turned Strigoi, or perhaps it's because I was the one to comfort her when she was turned back into a moroi. "Please," she said, her voice broken. "Please understand. I promised. I promised I wouldn't tell. I can't break my promise."

I stood up and went to stand on her side. I wrapped my arms around her protectively. "I understand…" I started. "But we really need to find this child. They're Lissa's sibling. She deserves to know she has a little sister or a little brother. This could be more helpful than you can imagine."

Tears were now streaming down her cheeks. She put her head on my shoulder. She reminded me of a little kid. "I want to, but I can't. I promised," she told me. "With all the bad I've done in the last three years, I don't want to do anything else wrong." There was a note of desperation in her voice.

I didn't know what to say to that. It was heartbreaking to see her like this.

"What exactly did you promise them?" Sydney asked.

Sonya just stared at her with a blank expression on her face. "You promised not to tell anyone who the child was right?" She asked. Sonya nodded hesitantly. "Did you promise not to tell anyone where they are?" Sydney asked hopefully. Sonya nodded again.

Sydney went quiet for a couple of minutes. I could see the lightbulb go off in her head. "Did you promise not to lead anyone to them?" She asked Sonya.

Sonya looked at her confused. "No," she said slowly.

"Then, you wouldn't be breaking your promise," Sydney said.

"I… I… I don't know," Sonya said reluctantly.

"And you'll get to see Mikhail again," I told her.

She froze and turned her head so she was looking at me. "You know Mikhail?" She asked me quietly.

I nodded. "I ran into him the day before our wedding. He told me all about you. He misses you," I told her simply.

To my surprise, she suddenly got angry. "So that's how this is going to work? If I don't tell you where the child is, I don't get to see Mikhail?" She asked with venom in her voice.

"No," I told her immediately. "That's not what I meant at all. Regardless of whether you help us or not, I will personally make sure you get to see Mikhail again."

She studied me for a moment, then relaxed. I guess she believed me, so I went on. "We would really appreciate your help. Sydney's a genius, so I'm pretty sure we could figure it out eventually, but it would go quicker with your help," I told her.

She studied me for a moment. "Okay," she said. "I'll take you to them."

I grinned at her. "Thank you Sonya," I told her happily.

She didn't return my smile. "I… I hope this is the right thing to do," she muttered to herself.

"It is," I promised her. "It is."

She looked at me uncertainly. I could see she was still struggling to get over her Strigoi trauma and this wasn't helping. I could tell she wanted to talk about it, but not with Dimitri and Sydney here.

"Why don't we go in the bedroom and talk?" I suggested to her.

She shot me a grateful look and walked into the bedroom. I followed her and shut the door behind us.

I sat down on the bed next to her. She leaned her head on my shoulder. "I feel so guilty," she said to me quietly. "I chose that. It's my fault."

"No, it's not," I told her soothingly. "You weren't in your right mind. Spirit influenced your decision."

"But it was still me. I killed hundreds of innocent people. It was like I was a puppet. I couldn't control my actions, but it was still me that did it," she said. She was trying to control herself, but the tears fell from her eyes anyway.

"It wasn't you. That's what you need to see. Look at who you are right now. Do you want to go out and kill someone? Right now?" I asked her seriously.

"No, of course not," she told me shocked.

"Exactly. That's who you are. You're the person who looks upset at the thought of killing an innocent person. It may have been your body that did what you did when you were Strigoi, but it wasn't you," I told her.

She looked at me like I held the answers to the universe. "Spirit's darkness leads people to do awful things. I've almost killed when overwhelmed by Spirit. I understand what it's like. It's almost impossible to fight. It consumes you, blocking out all rational thought. You can't blame yourself for what happens when Spirit is controlling you. That's like blaming someone for their actions if they were being compelled to do it," I told her.

She considered my words carefully. "You're right," she said softly. "What I did, it will still haunt me. It probably always will. But I am starting to understand what you are saying. I couldn't control myself. It was like I was me, but I wasn't. If that makes any sense." Her crying was picking up.

"It does make sense," I assured her.

"How do I get past this?" She sobbed. "How do I accept that I used these hands to kill innocent people? There is bloodshed in my past and even if I wasn't in control of myself when I was Strigoi, what if before I had done something to control spirit. What if I had gotten help? I could have spared all those lives. How? How can I forgive myself?"

"You just have to take it one step at a time," I told her. "It's not going to be easy, but it is going to be possible. You have to talk about it. You have to see that the worst thing you could do right now is let your past overcome you. That's when the Strigoi part will win. When you stop fighting it, when you stop living your life. You can overcome this, you just have to let yourself."


	31. Chapter 31

Once the sun was out, we were off. Sonya sat in the front while Dimitri drove, of course. He wouldn't let me drive. Sydney and I sat in the back. We had to go to the airport, because her cousin lived in America. Sonya insisted on sitting in the front seat because she would have to give Dimitri directions. My argument that she wouldn't need to give directions until we hit America fell on deaf ears.

Sonya had already called the airport and booked the tickets. I argued that we were going to find out where we were landing once we got on the plane, so she might as well tell us, but once again my argument fell on deaf ears.

It was a thirty minute drive to the airport and then we waited two more hours to board the plane. I was practically bouncing in my seat because of my impatience. I didn't like waiting so long.

Dimitri tried and failed to calm me down. He didn't appreciate my suggestion that having sex in an airport would be an exciting way to distract me. No argument I made would sway him. He did let me lean on his shoulder and steal the occasional kiss, but for the most part; we just sat there in a comfortable silence.

When we had finally boarded the plane and took off into the sky, I resumed my argument with Dimitri. "Come on Comrade. We are on our honeymoon," I pointed out.

"No," he said to me calmly.

"It's been three days! How can you possibly be this calm?" I asked him annoyed.

His eyes widened. "You're keeping track?" He asked amused.

"Not intentionally," I told him annoyed.

He looked at me curiously. "Is it really bothering you that much?" He asked me.

"More than you can guess. When we planned our wedding, I thought we would be able to spend these two weeks alone, just the two of us. It turned into this whole big adventure with us hardly being able to kiss. We thought we would be able to get the information out of Strigoi Sonya and then be on our way. But instead, we got stuck with an extra moroi to watch and protect. Not that I'm sad Sonya's a moroi again. I'm thrilled that she got this second chance, but" I trailed off quietly. I couldn't look at him. I was being so selfish.

"But?" He prodded.

"But I was really looking forward to spending two weeks with you and only with you. Where neither of us have to worry about going to our shifts to guard Court. Where we don't have to hear people whispering about 'that dhampir couple' behind our backs. Where we don't have to go out and fight Strigoi at night to get information for the queen. I thought for once, we would be able to do something normal, just the two of us. We've barely been able to have a honeymoon. From the second we got to your family's house, our honeymoon has been about this mystery Dragomir. We got a few hours in Paris, but that too was ruined by Strigoi and this mission," I told him. I was babbling, but I couldn't stop myself. Only a couple of days before my wedding, my dreams for a normal honeymoon were squashed by the Queen. That wasn't something I took lightly.

He let me rant. Then, without saying a word he stood up. He walked to the back of the plane where the bathrooms were. I stared at him shocked. Had I convinced him? Before he entered, he winked at me.

I really didn't need more of an invitation than that. My body had been craving Dimitri and I was determined to have him. I got up and joined him in the bathroom.

When we returned to our seats, slightly pink-faced, Sonya shot us a knowing look.

"I was going to try to sleep, but that is no longer possible with your auras," she told us.

"What do you mean?" I asked her confused.

"You're auras. They're usually bright when you two are around one another. When you kiss, they shine a little brighter. Right now, it's like looking at the sun," she explained with a grin.

I blushed and didn't look at her. "Sorry we're keeping you from your sleep," I mumbled to her.

"Don't apologize. It is your honeymoon after all," she told us with a small giggle.

I blushed even deeper and looked down at the floor. "What else can you see from auras?" I asked her, trying to change the subject. It didn't really work.

"Well, just to use your auras as an example. Rose, your aura has a thin rim around it. It's not exactly black, because it isn't consistent. It's more like overlapping shadows. Both of your auras have a rim of orange, which signifies that you're embarrassed. For the most part, your auras are a bright gold. They are so, so bright. You know why that is. Usually, they are a soft gold. That signifies love and unity. Then, there is the usual green rim in the aura that coats all dhampirs.

"Now there's something peculiar about your auras that I've never seen in anyone else's. Both of your auras almost reach for each other. No other couple I've seen are like that. I don't necessarily believe in soul mates, but it's clear you two are meant to be together," she explained.

I blushed and couldn't help the huge goofy smile that spread across my face. I glanced at Dimitri and saw that he sported the same goofy smile and the same blush.

"The gold in your aura had calmed down a little bit. It's shining brighter now, which makes me think that both of you are feeling more lovey towards one another now that you know for sure you're meant to be together," Sonya told us.

I grinned and laid my head on Dimitri's shoulder. Sonya turned back in her seat to face the front of the plane. I looked up at Dimitri. "Meant to be together huh?" I asked him. I tried to make a joke out of it, but I couldn't hide the joy in my voice.

"I believe it," he told me happily. He leant down to kiss me.

I pressed myself closer to him as our kiss picked up in intensity. It was the kind of kiss that I wish could last forever. It was one of those kisses that proved what we knew all along. We're meant to be together.


	32. Chapter 32

Our plane landed in Detroit. It was still light out, so we decided to wait in a hotel until nightfall. We had gotten it out of Sonya that Lissa's mystery sibling was indeed a moroi. That means that they are asleep right now.

We were staying at a very comfy hotel. It had two rooms and a plush couch in the lounge area. I had figured Dimitri and I would be stuck on the floor in the lounge. I wasn't too upset about that, because the carpet was thick and comfortable. So I was extremely surprised when Dimitri told me that he and I will be sharing a room, while Sonya takes the other room and Sydney sleeps on the couch.

After making sure Sydney was situated on the couch, Dimitri led me to the bedroom. There was a huge king-size bed, but that's all I noticed before Dimitri pressed his lips to mine. Our kiss picked-up in intensity. When we broke apart, it was so we could get some air. I lay my head against his chest, panting.

"What brought this on?" I asked him, waving my hand around the bedroom.

"Sydney slept the whole time on the plane, so she told us we should take the bedroom and get some sleep," he explained to me.

I had to hold back my disappointment. "So we're going to sleep?" I asked him. I could hear the edge of sadness in my voice.

"Well I definitely plan on sleeping, but not the type your thinking of," he said to me suggestively.

"Really?" I asked him shocked.

"It is our honeymoon, after all," he said to me with a grin.

"Not that I don't want to do this. I do. I really, really do. But aren't you worried about Sonya or Sydney getting eaten by Strigoi or something?" I asked him. I've never seen his guard down like this before when there were moroi that needed protecting just around the corner.

"It's day time, so if a Strigoi is here, they would have already had to be in the building. If they enter our room, either Sydney will scream at the top of her lungs, or you'll feel the tell-tale Strigoi nausea," he said to me.

That's all it took. I had just needed to make sure he had thought this out. He had and I was satisfied. I crushed my lips to his. This kiss was different from the other one's we had shared today. This kiss was slow and passionate at some points, but fast and needy at others. This was the kiss I had pictured us sharing when I thought of our honeymoon. As if reading my thoughts, Dimitri slowly backed towards the bed, dragging me with him.

What happened next was pure love. I pulled off his shirt and he pulled off mine. Before I knew it, our clothes lay in a pile forgotten. When we were finished, we lay next to one another, our limbs entangled. I grinned to myself. That's what I wanted my honeymoon to be like.

I let the black waters of sleep engulf me.

I was pushing a child on a swing in my backyard. It wasn't anything special. Just a tire swing tied to a thick branch. No the special part was the child. He had dark brown hair. So dark, it was almost black. He had big chocolate brown eyes. Right now, his mouth was open in a big grin. I could see he was missing his two front teeth.

"Higher! Higher!" He giggled. I pushed the swing a little harder and he soared higher. I stopped pushing the swing and let it slow down. I went to stand in front of the swing.

"Catch me mommy!" The little boy cried as he jumped off the tire swing into my eagerly awaiting arms.

I caught the little bundle and held him to me closely.

"Come on. What do you say we cook dinner for daddy?" I asked the little boy as we saw the sun go down.

That's when my amazing dream became a nightmare. Before we could get in the house, Tasha appeared in front of us.

She hit me before I knew what was happening. I fell to the floor and blacked out. When I opened my eyes, Tasha was standing before me, holding my son in her arms. At Tasha's side was Dimitri, his eyes red and evil. Tasha gave me an evil look. "Now, you have nothing," she told me, her voice cold and heartless. With a flick of her wrist, my son's face went slack and his eyes went blank.

"Nooo!" I moaned. "No! No! No! Not him. You can't have him. Not my baby." I was crying. I couldn't help myself.

"Roza, it's okay. It was just a dream. It was just a dream," Dimitri told me soothingly.

"It was so real," I sobbed to him.

He held me close to him as I told him about my dream. When I had cried out all my tears, he kissed my forehead. "It's okay Roza. I won't let Tasha hurt you or our child. I promise," he told me, hugging me. The scent of his aftershave, as faint as it may be, still soothed me.

Looking out the window, I was startled to realize that it was dark out. "I guess it's time to go?" I asked him.

He nodded sadly. "We have to complete this mission," he told me.

I nodded. There was never any doubt in my head. They come first.

We dressed quickly, then all of us piled into the rental car, a Honda. How predictable. Sonya's directions led us to a small brick house. It was cute and had a homey feel to it.

The four of us got out of the car and tentatively walked to their front door.

We awkwardly stood on the doormat in silence. No one was willing to knock on the door.

"One of the neighbors are going to call the police on us," I said after we had been standing there for several minutes.

"Then knock on the door," Sydney suggested.

I grabbed one of Dimitri's hands. He squeezed my hand for reassurance and I picked up my other hand on knocked on the door. It seemed like several hours before someone opened the door, even though it was only a couple of seconds.

When I saw who was standing in front of me, my jaw dropped.

"Jill?" I asked uncertainly.


	33. Chapter 33

I couldn't believe this. Jillian Mastrano was standing before us. It can't be. She can't be Lissa's sister. Looking at her green eyes, I knew it was true, but I didn't want to admit it.

I was about to turn to Sonya to make sure we had the right house, when a tall woman appeared behind Jill. I assumed this woman was her mother. "Sonya?" The woman asked like she couldn't believe her eyes. She pushed Jill behind her protectively. Then she got a good look at Sonya's eyes. "Impossible," she gasped.

"I know it seems impossible, but it's true. I'm moroi again," she told the woman. "Emily. I've missed you so much!"

Sonya threw her arms around Emily and after a few moments, Emily wrapped her arms around Sonya. "I can't believe this. You're here. You're really here," Emily sobbed.

A man appeared behind Emily. "Emily, what's going on?" The man asked worriedly.

"My… My cousin is here," Emily answered tentatively. Then she looked at the four of us, standing out on her front porch. "Oh where are my manners. Please come in."

We gratefully entered her house. She led us to a comfortable looking living room.

Jill looked at me uncertainly. "Rose, what are you doing here?" She asked me with wide eyes.

I couldn't answer. I didn't know how to. It was one thing when I thought Lissa's sibling was a random moroi, but to find out that they were someone we knew. It was mind-blowing. I couldn't bring myself to deliver the news to my friend. It could hurt her. I knew she needed to know, but I couldn't be the one to tell her.

Dimitri as if sensing my reluctance, decided to speak. "We need to talk to you about something. It's about your father," he said hesitantly.

"No!" Emily shouted. "Absolutely not!"

"She has a right to know," Dimitri insisted. "It's part of who she is."

"My father?" Jill asked confused.

I nodded. I wasn't one for avoiding uncomfortable topics. "Your father was Eric Dragomir," I blurted out before anyone could stop me.

I saw shock in Jill's green eyes. Eyes that perfectly matched Lissa's eyes. Eyes that were the telltale eyes of the Dragomirs. Eyes that were now filled with doubt and confusion.

"N-no… My father was just some low life moroi who left me and my mom," Jill insisted. It hurt me to see her like this. She was struggling to remain composed, but this was a lot to throw on a teenager.

"No… He was Eric Dragomir," I told her. I know she could see the honesty in my eyes. "Jill you're… you're Royal. You are Lissa's sister. You are a Dragomir."

Jill turned to her mom, clearly hoping she would deny these claims. Emily's eyes locked on mine. "It's true. Eric Dragomir is her father. When I found out I was pregnant, I wouldn't let him be part of her life. I didn't want her to get involved in all of the drama and corruption that follows Royal wherever they go. So yes, Eric Dragomir is her father," she said slowly. "But it's not going to change anything. Jill will stay right here. She will not go to Court and be manipulated by all those power-hungry Royals."

"Not all Royals are like that! Lissa's not. If Jill goes to Court, Lissa can become queen. Lissa would make sure that Jill stays away from the corruption that plagues most Royals. But without Jill, Lissa will never have the power to change things. Lissa is fair and just. She can revolutionize our whole world," I told Emily.

"Lissa is one Royal. She can't protect Jill from all the other Royals. And if Jill goes to Court, she'll never get to live a normal life. That just won't be an option. Or are you going to try to tell me that things will be the way they were before?" Emily asked sarcastically.

I knew she was just trying to protect Jill, but this was beyond irritating. Mostly, because she was right. I knew she was right and she knew she was right. How could I wish that upon Jill? Jill who was so tall and awkward, still growing into herself. Jill who rambled cutely when she was nervous. Jill who had managed to worm her way into the affections of me and all of my friends. She was always like a little sister to us. This didn't change that, it just meant that she was really Lissa's little sister. I wish I could tell her that we were enough. That we would be able to protect Jill and shelter her from the real world. But I couldn't do that, because I didn't know for sure.

"I'll do it," Jill said in a small voice.

"What?" Emily and I asked at the same time, disbelief in both of our voices.

"I'll do it. I'll go to Court," Jill repeated. She turned to her mother. "For years, you let me believe my father was some nobody moroi who didn't want me. Do you know what that was like? To feel like my own father didn't love me? I was lucky though. John treated me like I was his daughter. I used to pretend that he was my real father, just so I could believe that I was wanted." Jill was crying. I felt my heart break for her.

"Now I find out that my father might have wanted me, might have wanted to be involved in my life. No one can know what that's like," Jill sobbed.

I went over to Jill and gave her a hug. "Jill, I know exactly what you feel like," I told her.

"How could you possibly understand?" She asked bitterly.

"I didn't know who my father was until the day I graduated. I spent eighteen years, believing he was just some one night fling with my mom. Then one day it was 'hey surprise. I'm your father.' I know how much it sucks," I told her. "Don't take it out on your mom. She was only doing what she thought was best for you. You did have a father-figure in your life. You were lucky to have him." I could hear the wistful note in my voice.

She clung to me and cried. I was definitely going to have my guardian status revoked if I keep turning warm and fluffy whenever I see someone crying.

When she had finished crying, she turned to me. "I'm ready. I'm ready to go to Court," she said with a determined look on her face.


	34. Chapter 34

Four hours later, we were on a plane to the moroi Court. I had made Jill sit next to her mother in the hopes that they would talk and make up. Jill was still really upset, which made sense since she had been lied to her entire life. This plane ride would be relatively short, only a couple of hours, so I didn't even try to sleep.

I laid my head against Dimitri's shoulder. "What's going to happen to Jill?" I asked him nervously.

He lowered his head to look at me. "I don't know," he told me honestly. "But we'll protect her. No one wants to see her get hurt. No one wants to see her be another piece in the Royal's messed-up game. We'll be able to protect her."

In that moment, I wasn't sure if he was trying to reassure me or himself. I took his hands in mine. We spent the rest of the flight like that, both of us lost in our own thoughts.

When we had landed, we drove the twenty minutes to Court. We drove in a Honda Civic. I swear, Dimitri had no originality when it comes to cars. His driving is sponsored by Honda. The ride flew by and before I knew it, we were outside the Court gates.

"Where can we find Guardian Tanner?" I asked the guardian at the gate so only he could hear me. I wanted to surprise Sonya with this.

"His permanent assignment is the Guardian Archives," the guardian answered me in a monotone voice.

I nodded as Dimitri drove forward and led us to a parking garage. I turned to Dimitri. "You take Emily and Jill to the queen. I'll meet you there soon," I promised him.

He looked at me confused, but nodded. "I'll see you later," he told me, lightly pressing his lips to mine.

Everyone started to follow him, but I stopped Sonya. "Sonya, you're coming with me," I told her quietly.

She looked at me confused, but waited while the others left. "Where are we going?" She asked me curiously.

"You'll see," I told her mysteriously.

Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion, but I didn't elaborate. She followed me out of the parking garage to Guardian Headquarters.

I went straight down to the Archives. Mikhail's back was facing us when we had descended the stairs. He didn't see us, but he heard the gasp that escaped Sonya when she recognized him.

He turned around slowly. His eyes widened as he took in every inch of Sonya. He turned to me. "How?" He asked.

"A spirit user restored her," I explained to him quietly.

That eliminated any doubts he had. He crossed the room and threw his arms around Sonya. "My love," he whispered to her over and over and over again.

I felt like I was intruding on something. "I have to go see the queen. I'll see you guys later," I told them as I headed out.

"Rose?" Mikhail called when I was about to walk out the door. I turned to him. "Thank you," he told me. Tears were streaming down his cheeks. I gave him a small smile before I left.

I went straight to the queen's chambers. She, Dimitri, Emily, Jill, and Sydney were standing around awkwardly. When I entered, everyone visibly relaxed.

"Ah, Rosemarie," she said. It took all of my self-control not to flinch at the use of my full name. "We were waiting for you. We are going to head to the Council Hall. I feel that it is time to make my announcement."

I knew what her announcement would be. She had told Dimitri and me her plans before we left for our crazy quest for her… I mean our honeymoon. I was still a little angry about that.

We walked to the Council Hall in silence. I don't know how she managed it, but when we entered, the Hall was packed. Moroi and dhampirs alike filled every seat.

Dimitri and I stayed by Jill and Emily on the side of the platform as the queen approached the podium.

Adrian entered the Hall and was about to walk right past us when I stopped him. "Nominate Lissa," I told him quietly, but urgently.

"What?" He asked, looking at me like I had two heads.

"Just do it!" I ordered him.

"When?" He asked.

"When the time comes, it will be obvious," I told him.

The queen cleared her throat in the microphone. "You should go find your seat," I told him quietly. I pushed him lightly to make him move.

He found his seat, but kept shooting us confused looks.

"I have a very important announcement to make," Tatiana said loudly into the microphone. Her voice echoed across the hall. "I have given this great consideration and I feel that this will be best for my people. The time has come for me to step down as reigning monarch. I will still be present to help train whoever you elect to govern our people."

Silence met her announcement. I saw stunned looks on everyone's faces. "This decision is final," Tatiana went on, oblivious to everyone's shock. "As current reigning monarch, it is my responsibility to oversee the trials before elections and to make sure the elections are fair and just. I now must ask all of the Royal families to reflect deeply. It is your responsibility to select members of the Royal family to represent you. One member from each of the families may be nominated, with the exception of the Ivashkov family."

Tatiana gave everyone several moments of silence to reflect on whom they would want to lead them. "I am now accepting nominations," Tatiana said, her voice clear and confident.

"I nominate Ariana Szelsky," declared a moroi I didn't recognize.

"I second the nomination," the man I recognized to be my mother's charge called.

"I confirm the nomination," a third man said.

And that's how it started. Royal after Royal were nominated, until all the families except for the Ivashkovs and Dragomirs were represented. I looked at Adrian, waiting for him. His eyes locked with mine as he took a deep breath.

He stood up. "I nominate Princess Vasilisa Dragomir," he declared.

I saw Lissa shrink in her seat shock. Christian jumped to his feet. "I second the nomination," he said, going along with it.

I nudged Jill slightly. She took a deep breath and walked onto the stage. Dimitri and I followed, standing behind her. We knew this wasn't going to be pretty. Taking the microphone Tatiana offered her, she said, "I confirm the nomination." He voice was strong and powerful despite her trembling body.

Everyone in the room was silent, then all hell broke loose.


	35. Chapter 35

There was shouting everywhere. Once everyone had calmed down a little bit, Nathan Ivashkov, Adrian's father stood up. "That is not a legal nomination. Vasilisa Dragomir does not have a quorum and the girl on stage is not a royal," he said angrily.

I looked at Jill and held out my hand for the microphone. I might get arrested for this, but I couldn't help myself. "Lord Ivashkov," I said, already letting snarkiness coat my tone. "This is completely a valid nomination."

"What do you know? You're just a wild dhampir that is too interested in men and partying to pay heed to politics. You have no right talking about things that you don't understand," he shouted to me.

"Nathan," I shouted, letting disrespect coat my tone. "I am not just some wild dhampir. I am Rose Hathaway. I have done whatever I could to help protect the moroi world. I am the reason the queen can stand before you today. Do not show me disrespect like I am some undisciplined dhampir. As for only being interested in men, I am only interested in one man. My husband. You have no right talking about things that you don't understand," I mimicked. I swear you could hear a pin drop. "Going back to how exactly this is a legal nomination. This girl on stage is Jillian Mastrano. She is Royal. She is the illegitimate child of Eric Dragomir. She gives Vasilisa her quorum, making Vasilisa an eligible candidate for the throne."

Silence ensued. "That's not true!" I could hear several moroi protest. I saw Lissa staring at Jill, studying her features.

"It is true," Daniella Ivashkov, Adrian's mother, declared.

Everyone in the audience went silent. Daniella was someone who was liked and respected. They valued her opinion. "This isn't information I wanted to get out, but I am not going to deny the truth," she said honestly. "I was one of the few people who helped Eric when he found out he got Emily pregnant. He needed help creating a bank account for the child and help keeping it a secret."

Nathan looked at her as if she had betrayed him. He shook his head to clear it. "The child is not eighteen. It is not a legal nomination," he pointed out. I heard a couple of mumbled agreements when he said that. I had no argument. I hadn't even thought of Jill's age.

Tatiana apparently had. She grabbed the microphone from me and turned to face the crowd. "Nathan is right. Jillian is too young to confirm the nomination," she said. "That is why I confirm the nomination."

She let her words sink in. "But… But…" Nathan stuttered.

"Find it in your rule book where it says I cannot nominate a candidate and I will withdraw my nomination," Tatiana said evenly.

Nathan sat down, looking defeated. "Vasilisa is an eligible candidate for the throne. That is if she chooses to accept the nomination," Tatiana declared.

Lissa looked at me. I nodded at her in encouragement. She stood up. "I accept the nomination," she said in a bold voice.

I grinned at her. She looked at me nervously as the hall exploded with people shouting, wanting to be heard. Dimitri and I got Jill out of the hall. We were quickly followed by our group of friends.

Lissa came right up to me and threw her arms around me. "It's okay Liss. It's okay," I told her.

"You're supposed to be on your honeymoon!" She told me annoyed.

I grimaced at her. "Our honeymoon kept getting interrupted," I told her bitterly.

"It's not over yet," Dimitri said.

I turned to look at him confused.

He looked at me with a huge smile. "Tatiana gave us off until the elections. We don't have anything to do at Court for six days," he told me.

I grinned at him, then looked back at Lissa. I could feel my smile fading. "We can't leave Lissa. She has her tests," I said sadly.

Lissa turned to me. "Go. I can handle this. You deserve a honeymoon," she told me with a wink.

"You wouldn't be able to help her anyway," Adrian pointed out. "They do something to the candidates so they can't talk about what happens during the tests."

"Are you sure Lissa?" I asked her uncertainly. I wanted to listen to her so, so badly. I wanted to be with Dimitri for six days while not thinking of anyone but us.

She nodded. That was all it took for the world to disappear. Dimitri and I literally sprinted away from the hall. Once we were outside, he turned to me and kissed me. It was short, but sweet.

He led me to a parking garage and pulled out the keys to one of the cars. When he opened the door to the car, my jaw dropped.

"Comrade? Are sure this is the right car?" I asked him uncertainly.

"Yes, why?" He asked me with a huge grin.

"It's not a Honda," I told him, unsure if he had noticed that.

"No. it's not," he confirmed.

"It's not even a boring car," I said to him, still uncertain that this was really our car.

"You're right. I felt that this was an interesting enough car for you," he told me, his eyes filled with amusement. "I know how much you hate all the Hondas, so I figured we would do something new and different."

I lunged myself into his arms and kissed him. "Thank you," I said to him as I got in the passenger side. I didn't even complain about Dimitri driving. We drove for almost an hour before we stopped in front of a grand hotel.

He got out and opened my door for me. When I was standing, he crushed his lips to mine. When we broke apart, we were both panting. Dimitri went into the trunk and pulled out two bags. He took my hand as we walked to the entrance of the hotel.

When the man and the front desk asked what name our room was under, Dimitri told him, "Rose and Dimitri Belikov." He looked like he was going to burst from happiness at saying our names like that.

The man gave Dimitri our keys and we headed to our room. We were on the ninth floor of the building, but the elevator ride didn't seem that long. When we were outside the door, Dimitri opened it a crack. He then picked me up bridal style and carried me over the threshold.

I started giggling uncontrollably when he threw me on the bed. "What was that?" I laughed.

"You said you wanted a real honeymoon," he told me innocently.

"Yes, I did," I agreed as I brought his lips down to mine. I was excited for my honeymoon to finally start.


	36. Chapter 36

We spent four beautiful days, holed up in the hotel. Never once did we see the outside of our hotel room. We probably would never have seen the outside of our bedroom if eating wasn't a necessity.

On the fifth day, Dimitri put down his foot. "We are not eating hotel food again. Tonight, we are going to go out to dinner and that's final," he insisted.

I pouted slightly. "But our room is so comfy," I told him suggestively.

"Yes it is," he said with a small grin. "But I want real food and two hours away from this room won't kill us."

I sighed, knowing it was a lost cause. I grumbled as I got dressed. I put on a strapless, knee length red dress. I knew I looked good from the way his eyes practically popped out of his head when he saw me. He pulled me towards him. "You look beautiful," he told me sincerely.

I grinned at him. "You don't look so bad yourself," I told him. He actually looked drop dead sexy. He was in perfectly fitting black pants with a white button up shirt. The shirt wasn't buttoned up all the way and it hinted at the muscles hidden underneath it.

He chuckled and took my hand, leading me out the door.

Ten minutes later, we pulled up to a really expensive looking restaurant.

I looked at Dimitri doubtfully. "Are you sure about this Comrade? This place looks really expensive," I asked him uncertainly.

"Don't worry about it," he assured me. I followed him inside the restaurant. There was a fountain… I repeat a fountain in the lobby of this restaurant. There were little schools of fish swimming in it. Can you say fancy?

The second I saw the fountain, I knew Dimitri was going above and beyond for this dinner.

"Do you have a reservation?" A man in a tuxedo asked us. I kid you not. A tuxedo. I figured he must be a greeter.

"Yes. Belikov," Dimitri told him.

The man skimmed through his book. "Ah here we go. Belikov, table for two," the man said. He called over a waitress. Of course, she was tall, blonde, and not completely unfortunate looking. Figures that something like a waitress would ruin this night.

I heard Dimitri whisper something to the man. Suddenly our waitress disappeared and was replaced by a middle aged woman. She led us to our table.

"My name is Courtney and I will be your waitress tonight," she told us with a grin. "What can I get you to drink?"

We gave her our drink orders and she left to go get them. I scanned the menu. Everything had really fancy names.

"What should I get Comrade? I don't know what half of this stuff means," I admitted.

"What type of food do you want?" He asked me curiously.

I thought about it for a moment. "Something with chicken," I told him. I don't know why, but I really wanted chicken.

"Hmmm," Dimitri said glancing at the menu. "Chicken parmesan?"

Ooh. Food I actually recognized the name of. "Sounds delicious," I told him enthusiastically. My stomach rumbled in agreement.

Dimitri chuckled. When the waitress came back, he ordered both of us chicken parmesan.

When the waitress was gone, I turned to Dimitri. "Did you tell him to switch waitresses?" I asked Dimitri curiously.

Dimitri nodded. When I saw our waitress walking over, I saw you stiffen. You looked like she had ruined this whole night just by being our waitress. Then I remembered our history with waitresses and flight attendants and I asked him if he could have an older waitress. I figured you wouldn't think she was much of a threat," he told me with a twinkle in his eyes.

"That was so sweet. Thank you," I told him happily. I reached over the table and grabbed his hand. I would have kissed him, but we were sitting across from one another and I really didn't want to stand up.

"I just want tonight to be absolutely perfect," he told me seriously. "I know you weren't happy with the way our honeymoon was going before we found Jill, so I wanted to show you it could get better."

"This is already perfect. I'm happy to be spending time with you," I told him. "These past five days? They've been magical. This is the first time we've actually been alone for this long. Usually we're at your house, or we have responsibilities at Court. It was nice to spend time alone for once."

Dimitri grinned at me. "I agree," he told me. "I love you so much Roza."

"I love you too Comrade," I promised.

We sat there in a comfortable silence until the waitress returned with our food. Dimitri laughed at me as I inhaled my plate of food. The chicken was delicious.

Dimitri had moved his seat so he was sitting to the left of me, instead of across from me. He gave me one end of his noodle and put the other in his mouth. That was our Lady and the Tramp moment. And let me tell you. It's better in real life then it is in the movies.

When we had finished eating, the waitress came back and took away our plates. She walked away without saying a word.

"That's weird," I said to Dimitri. "She didn't even ask us if we wanted dessert."

Dimitri laughed. "How can you possibly still be hungry after that?" He teased.

"I'm a growing girl. I need to eat a lot," I said defensively.

He rolled his eyes. "You eat more than I do and I'm a full grown man," he pointed out. I could hear the joking edge in his tone.

I stuck my tongue out at him. "You're just jealous that you can't eat as much as I can," I told him jokingly.

I could see him open his mouth to say something when our waitress returned. She was carrying two plates. On Dimitri's plate, there was a simple piece of cake. It was two layers. The top was vanilla, and the bottom was chocolate. Separating the layers was a vanilla cream.

I honestly wasn't paying much attention to his cake, because on my plate was the most amazing dessert ever. There were three giant chocolate glazed donuts. And I mean giant. One of the donuts had a wedding dress drawn on it, another had a tuxedo. The one in the middle had 'Roza and Dimitri,' written on it.

I looked up at Dimitri with a huge smile on my face. I don't know how he planned this, but this was amazing.

"This is perfection," I told him as I leaned in to kiss him lightly.


	37. Chapter 37

We walked out of the restaurant in good spirits. I was ecstatic about our date, especially for Dimitri's surprise at the end. He had told me that he bought the donuts and had them designed like that. Then he gave them to the restaurant manager to hold on to until it was time for dessert. It was the best surprise he could have given me.

As we were walking through the parking lot, I felt the nausea creep up on me. I stopped walking and froze. We heard a scream coming from behind the restaurant. Without looking at Dimitri, I sprinted towards the back of the building. I knew he was right behind me.

When we got there, we saw a Strigoi. He was holding a pregnant woman up against the wall. When I say pregnant, I mean pregnant. She has to be pregnant with twins. Maybe even triplets. She was huge. Dimitri snuck up behind the Strigoi while I distracted it. He staked the Strigoi through its back, just missing his heart. The Strigoi's eyes rolled in the back of its head. Dimitri flipped it over and staked it through its heart. We turned to the girl.

I was startled to realize she was a dhampir. "Are you all right?" I asked her. I approached her slowly so she wouldn't see me as a threat.

She nodded. "You came before he could hurt me," she said in a shaky voice.

"What's your name?" I asked her.

"Samantha," she told me. "I'm sixteen." She looked at her feet when she told us that. I got the feeling that telling people her age was never met with a good reaction.

"Well, Samantha. I'm Rose. It's nice to meet you," I told her kindly.

She looked at me startled. "You're being nice to me?" She asked me uncertainly.

"Of course. Why wouldn't I be?" I asked her.

"No one is nice to me. Not since I got…" She trailed off, looking at her swollen stomach.

I didn't want to bring up painful memories, but I was dying of curiosity. "Why are people mean to you about it?" I asked her.

"No one believes me. I was raised in a dhampir community. My mother, well let's just say she slept around. I'm one of six children and none of us have the same father. When I got pregnant, everyone assumed I was just following in my mother's footsteps. No one believed me when I told them that…" She stopped abruptly looking at Dimitri nervously.

I turned to Dimitri. "Call the alchemists," I told him. He nodded and walked off a little bit to call someone. I knew he got the message. We needed some space. I helped the girl sit down and then sat down next to her.

"Can you tell me what happened?" I asked her quietly.

"One day when I was home from school for Christmas, a moroi man came to visit our house. My mother wasn't home. It was just me and my baby brother," she told me. "I made the mistake of telling him no one was home. He… He started to touch me and kiss me. I kept telling him to stop. I wanted to be a guardian so badly, I didn't want to be like my mother. I kept telling him I didn't want this, but he told me I was just a stupid dhampir girl. How can I know what I want?"

She looked up at me gravely. "You can probably guess what happened next," she told me sadly. "When I told my mother, she acted like it was to be expected. She called me a blood-whore. When I told her what had happened, she yelled at me. Told me that I shouldn't go spreading lies about Royals just because I wasn't smart enough to protect myself. She told everyone I was a liar so no one believed me. They all acted like I was some crazy girl who couldn't accept responsibility for her actions."

"I believe you," I told her. I don't know why, but I knew she was telling the truth. I could see the legitimate pain in her expression as she remembers what happened.

She looked up at me shocked. "You… You do?" She asked me.

I nodded. "I do. I'm sorry that this happened to you," I told her sincerely. I thought about what she said about her story. "If you got pregnant around Christmas, you must be due really soon?"

She nodded. "They're due any day now," she told me.

"They're?" I asked. I was secretly doing a victory dance. More than one, I knew it.

"I'm having twins," she explained. "Two little girls." A happy expression came across her face. As much as she hated the situation she had gotten herself in, she was happy about the babies.

"Did you come up with names yet?" I asked her.

She shook her head. "I know I want to name one of them Mila," she told me. "It was my grandmother's name. My grandmother always taught me to be my own person."

"That's a beautiful name," I told her with a smile.

She smiled back at me. "Thank you for believing me. I don't know why, but I feel like I can trust you," she told me. "The way you distracted that Strigoi from me was amazing. Like you cared more about me than yourself."

I shrugged. "One Strigoi really isn't much of a problem for me," I admitted.

"Why?" She asked me surprised.

"Not to sound cocky, but I'm just very aware of my abilities when it comes to killing Strigoi. As is most of the moroi world," I admitted.

"Who are you?" She asked me.

"Rose Belikov. The man over there is my husband, Dimitri Belikov," I told her.

She looked at me startled. "You married a dhampir?" She asked me. I nodded and grinned. "Wait. What was your name before you got married?" She asked me curiously.

I bit my lip and hesitated. She told me her story, the least I could do is tell her my name. "Rose Hathaway," I told her.

I saw her eyes widen. "The Rose Hathaway?" She asked as if she couldn't believe her ears.

I nodded, but was distracted from her reaction by more nausea.


	38. Chapter 38

"Dimitri!" I screamed. He came running as fast as he could as I looked around, trying to find the threat.

"Strigoi?" He asked.

I nodded. Suddenly, we were surrounded. Dimitri pulled two stakes out of his duster. I had asked him to hold mine just in case. There were six Strigoi around us. One immediately went for Dimitri, perceiving him as the greater threat. His mistake. Dimitri ducked out of the way and the Strigoi missed Dimitri by inches. I thrust my stake through his back, piercing his heart.

Dimitri and I split up. Three Strigoi stayed with me, while two fought Dimitri. I was constantly aware of the scared, pregnant dhampir girl behind me. I had to protect her. I was battling two elderly male Strigoi and one fairly new Strigoi. I kicked one Strigoi hard in the stomach, pulling my foot back before he could grab it. While they were distracted by that move, I managed to stake the female Strigoi. That left me fighting the two male Strigoi. The problem with the Strigoi I was fighting, was they kept arguing amongst themselves. It seemed like they couldn't decide which one of them was leader of the other.

"You have to follow my orders. I want the pregnant one," one of the Strigoi whined.

"No. I am the leader. I want the pregnant one," the other argued.

I looked back and forth between them. "I vote blondie as leader," I said effectively distracting them.

"You don't know what you're talking about," the black-haired Strigoi said annoyed. But the blonde one turned to me with a smile on his face. I knew my plan would work out.

I turned to the blonde one. "I could help you if you help me kill him," I said motioning to the black-haired Strigoi.

He didn't need further prodding then that. He tackled his partner, leaving his chest open for me to stake him. The blonde Strigoi then let his defenses down, which was his mistake. I easily staked him. I would have felt bad about tricking him if he hadn't been trying to kill a pregnant woman.

I glanced at Dimitri and saw him stake his second Strigoi. The second he had done that, three more Strigoi appeared. Two of them went for me, while the third went for Dimitri. Where were they coming from.

"No," I heard Dimitri gasp. Keeping an eye on my two Strigoi, I turned to him. I saw him staring at the Strigoi in front of him.

I glanced at them and was shocked to see Tasha. "Shit," I said out loud. I jumped out of the way as one of my Strigoi aimed a kick to my stomach.

I can't be distracted by Tasha. I can't be distracted by Tasha. I elbowed one Strigoi in the stomach. It couldn't have hurt her that badly, but it distracted her, giving me the opening to stake her. Then it was just me and the other.

I heard Dimitri scream. I glanced over at him and I saw Tasha about to sink her teeth into his neck.

My nightmare came back to me and I saw red. I attacked the Strigoi before me with a sudden fury. The second he faltered, I staked the second Strigoi before he knew what hit him. I ran to Dimitri. He was the only one that mattered in this moment.

In the back of my head, I knew it was wrong to leave Samantha alone by herself. She had no stake, no way to defend herself, but in that moment, I couldn't think about her. I could only think about Dimitri. I threw myself at Tasha, effectively knocking her off of Dimitri. I protected him as well as I could as I fought Tasha. This was going to be difficult. I was exhausted from all the Strigoi I had fought and Tasha had trained when she was still a moroi. She wasn't defenseless. She actually knew how to use the strength she had been given.

She lunged for me and I sidestepped her at the last minute, dragging my stake down her arm.

She screamed in pain, but no matter what I did, she always kept her chest covered. That was until I did something she didn't expect. She had knocked me to the ground so I was lying right next to Dimitri. I could hear his faint breathing. I knew this was it. She was going to kill me, then she was going to turn Dimitri.

I turned to Dimitri to give him one last kiss. "I love you always," I whispered to him.

I heard her hiss in outrage. She was too angry about what I had just done to protect my chest. The irony that the moment I had accepted death was when she let her defenses down. I plunged my stake into her chest before she had the chance to fight back.

I saw the life drain from her eyes. That's it. She was gone.

I turned to Dimitri. He looked pretty bad, his breathing was getting slower. "Come on Dimitri. Stay with me. Remember all those times I almost died, but didn't? This is like those," I told him. "You can't die."

I was distracted from Dimitri when I heard Samantha scream. There was another Strigoi standing over her, holding a knife to her neck.

I stood up slowly. "What do you want?" I asked him boldly. I made eye contact with Samantha as I took a step forward.

Kick, I mouthed to her. She nodded slightly to show she understood. He pressed the knife closer to her neck."Now!" I shouted as I lunged for the Strigoi. She kicked him hard. He pushed her hard into the wall and she crumpled to the ground.

I was terrified for her and her babies. The Strigoi was young and sloppy. He was easy to finish off. I paid more attention after I killed him. I needed to make sure there were no more Strigoi this time. But I was sure there weren't. I didn't feel any more nausea.

I hurried to Samantha's side. She was still conscious. "Take care of them," she whispered to me weakly. Her face went slack. I could still feel her pulse, so I knew she was alive.

A man stepped out of the shadows and I stiffened. I didn't relax until I saw the tattoo on his cheek. "We need to get them to the hospital," I told him urgently. "She's pregnant! She needs to get looked at immediately. And he has lost so much blood. Please," I begged.

The alchemist nodded. "Get them in the car," he ordered. He poured a drop of the liquid on one of the Strigoi. Unlike Sydney, who waited until the body disappeared to move on, he immediately moved on and took care of the other bodies.

A couple of minutes later, we were rushing to a moroi hospital. They immediately put Dimitri in a room where they could hook him up to a bunch of different IV's. Samantha was immediately sent away for surgery. I was stuck in the waiting room.

This was going to be a long night.


	39. Chapter 39

About two hours after we arrived at the hospital, I was given permission to go see Dimitri. I warned the nurse to come see me if she got any news on Samantha. She agreed and I made my way to Dimitri's room.

I went and sat in a chair on the side of the bed. "Hey Comrade. How are you feeling," I asked him gently.

His eyes fluttered open as he looked at me. "Tired," he said in a weak voice.

"Can't blame you. You lost a lot of blood. I don't want to hear you complaining about near death experiences anymore," I warned him. "You gave me quite the scare."

He gave me a weak smile. "I'm sorry," he told me.

"I'm just happy you're okay," I told him. I could see how much he was struggling to talk. "Why don't you get some sleep? I'll be right here when you wake up," I promised him. He nodded and almost immediately fell asleep. I watched him sleep. He looked so peaceful and innocent when he was asleep.

The nurse walked in an hour after he had fallen asleep. "I'm sorry dear, but visiting hours are long over. I let you stay with your friend longer, but I'm afraid you have to leave," the nurse told me sadly.

I almost laughed. The nurse thought I was going to leave. "He's my husband. If you think I'm leaving him, you're out of your fucking mind," I told her angrily.

The nurse looked at me surprised. "I didn't know you were married," she told me.

"So can I stay?" I asked her, not that what she said was going to affect my actions at all. I was not moving from this chair.

She nodded and started to leave. "Wait!" I called. "Have you heard anything about a girl named Samantha? She was injured in the same attack my husband was. She was pregnant and I haven't heard any news on her or the babies."

The nurse's face softened. "I'll look into it," she promised me.

"Thank you," I said to her sincerely.

A little after she left, I fell asleep, my head resting on Dimitri's bed and his hands wrapped firmly in mine.

I woke up to Dimitri's hand on the side of my face. I glanced up at him and grinned. "You look so much better," I told him. "How do you feel?"

"Better," he told me. His voice sounded stronger. "I'm not as tired as I was. I'm sorry for waking you up." A guilty look spread across his face.

"Don't feel bad. I'm glad you woke me up," I told him seriously. "I'm so happy you're okay!"

I threw my arms around him and kissed him. He pressed himself closer to me, but I broke the kiss this time. He looked at me confused and annoyed. "Not until you're better," I told him. "Payback is a bitch Dimitri."

He groaned and rolled his eyes at me. "I'm not going to regret all the times I made you be careful after you nearly died," he warned me.

"I'm not going to regret doing the same thing now then," I retorted with a smile.

He sighed and leaned back into his bed. I win. The nurse walked in then, her face grim. I was instantly on my feet. "What's wrong?" I asked her anxiously.

"I checked in on Samantha," she told me slowly. "We had to deliver her babies by C-Section, because they weren't getting enough air. Both the baby girls are in stable condition."

"And Samantha?" I asked hesitantly.

The nurse frowned. "They spent hours, trying to save her, but in the end, there was nothing we could do. I'm sorry," she told me.

I just stared at her. "The babies," I said after a long time. "What's going to happen to the babies?"

The nurse shrugged. "We figured we would hand them over to one of the local academies. No one's going to want a disgraced dhampir's babies," she said to me.

I looked at the nurse in disbelief. "You don't know anything about her. Don't you dare talk about her like that," I said to her angrily. I glanced at Dimitri, silently asking him my question. He looked back at me for a minute before nodding.

"Those babies will not be raised by some academy. My husband and I will take care of them," I told her.

She looked at me shocked. "Why would you do that for some teenage girl who lies about how she got pregnant?" The nurse asked me.

"Because I believe her," I told her. "Who are you to be judging her anyway? What happened to her was awful. There's no reason people shouldn't believe her!"

"I'm her mother. I think I know her better than you do," the nurse said to me testily.

Now that I looked closely, I could see the bite marks on her neck. "Shows how much you know. And how heartless can you be? I haven't seen you shed one tear over your daughter. She's dead for crying out loud. You could pretend you care about her!" I shouted outraged. "Those babies deserve a chance. My husband and I will fill out any necessary paperwork." My tone made it obvious that this conversation was over.

She walked out and returned fifteen minutes later with a stack of paperwork. I filled it out, while Dimitri watched. I wouldn't let him help. I didn't want him overexerting himself. When I had finished with every last page, I pushed the button for the nurse. Shifts must have changed, because a different nurse came in.

"I was told to fill these out and return them to the nurse," I told her uncertainly.

She nodded and took the stack of paperwork. Two hours later, she came back with a typed up letter saying that the paperwork was in order and the babies were Dimitri's and my responsibility.

"Can we see them?" I asked her hopefully.

She nodded as she disappeared. She and another nurse appeared a couple of minutes later, wheeling two bassinets. The two babies were fast asleep.

"Is it safe to hold them?" I asked her.

"They are stable, so it should be fine. Just be careful," she told me. "Push the button if you need me."

Once she had walked out, I adjust Dimitri's bed so he was sitting up.

I picked up one of the little girls and handed her to Dimitri. Dimitri held her carefully, love in his eyes.

I picked up the other one and held her close to me.

Dimitri looked at me. "These are our babies," he said to me softly.

I looked back at him. "These are our babies," I echoed.


	40. Chapter 40

"What do you want to name them?" Dimitri asked me in a soft voice

"Samantha told me she had a name picked out for one of them. Mila," I said softly looking down at the identical twin girls. They were fast asleep. "I would like to name one of them that."

"I agree with that," Dimitri told me.

"Do you want to think of a name for the other one?" I asked him.

Dimitri turned thoughtful for a moment. "When Tasha asked me to be her guardian, I started thinking about what I would name my child if I had one. Whenever I pictured a child with Tasha, I couldn't come up with a name. Every child I could think of a name for had looked like you," he admitted. "I had thought about the things I love the most about you and I knew what I would want my little girl to be named. Valeria means to be strong. Little Lera," he said getting a goofy look across his face. I could tell he was in his own little world.

"Mila and Lera. I like it," I told him with a smile. He looked up at me with joy in his eyes.

"I love it," he said.

He turned back down to the little baby in his arms. "Hi Lera," he said to her in a baby voice. "You are so pwetty."

I had to stifle my giggle. I never thought I would see the day when Dimitri would baby talk. I had a brief flashback to when Tasha talked about Dimitri doing baby talk in Russian. I like it better in English. I actually understood what he was saying.

Lera wasn't even his baby, but he was already infatuated with her. He loved both of them. Just like I did.

I gently put Mila back in her bassinet. I took Lera from Dimitri and put her in her bassinet.

I went and sat on the edge of Dimitri's bed. He grabbed my hand as we watched the babies sleep. They looked beautiful.

"I have to go call Lissa," I told him quietly. "We'll need her help getting things ready for these bundles of joy. I promise I'll be right back."

I saw his uneasy expression and I felt a pang of guilt. But we had to make arrangements for the babies. If anyone can get cribs to our apartment via overnight shipping, it would be Lissa.

I pulled out my cell phone when I got into the hallway. I dialed the familiar number.

"Hello?" A voice answered on the other end of the phone.

"Hey Liss. It's Rose," I replied.

"Rose? What are you doing? You shouldn't be calling me! You're on your honeymoon," Lissa practically screamed into the phone.

"Um Liss, I can say for sure that my honeymoon is over. But before I explain anything, I need your help with something," I told her.

"Anything," she answered immediately.

"I need two cribs to be delivered to mine and Dimitri's apartment by tomorrow," I explained.

"Rose… Why?" She asked uncertainly.

"Please just make it happen. When you call me back, I'll explain everything. I promise," I told her.

"Okay. I'll talk to you soon Rose." I could practically hear the questions bubbling in her voice.

I went back into the hospital room and returned to my place on the side of Dimitri's bed. He looked relieved when I returned. I glanced at the sleeping babies.

"I'm going to call the nurse to bring them back," I told him. "They've been here a couple of hours and I don't know when they need to eat."

He nodded, but looked sad. "We'll see them again soon," he said more to himself than to me.

Within seconds of pushing the button, the nurse came in our room and wheeled out the bassinets. "Let me know if you need anything else," she told me as she left.

Dimitri moved over so I would have room to lie on the side of the bed. I cuddled against his chest.

"I can't wait to go home," I told him softly.

"Me neither," he agreed.

"The babies can sleep in our room and we can paint the nursery. We could make it perfect for our babies," I told him sleepily.

"That sounds perfect to me. I was thinking cowboy themed," he told me with a grin.

"Keep dreaming Comrade," I told him. "How about baby blue?"

"I like that color," he told me happily. "We can ask Lissa or Mia to babysit while we go get paint and stuff."

I grinned at him. "We're a family. Us and two babies and a little one that may be on the way," I said patting my stomach.

He frowned. "If you're pregnant, you don't think the Strigoi hurt the baby do you?" He asked me worriedly.

I shook my head. "I think I would have felt something," I told him. "I don't think something could happen to the baby without me noticing."

He still looked nervous. "Relax Dimitri," I told him gently. "Everything will be okay. Everything will be perfect."

"Everything is perfect," he corrected me.

He leaned down and pressed his lips to mine just as my cell phone went off.

I answered the phone and put it on speakerphone.

"Lissa you have crappy timing," I whined into the phone.

"Sorry, but I thought your honeymoon was over," Lissa said confused.

"It is," Dimitri and I said at the same time.

Lissa started giggling. "You both sound so upset about it," she told us. "Anyway. Rose, I called the baby store at Court and they are going to have two cribs delivered to you tonight."

"That's great Liss! Thank you so much!" I told her enthusiastically.

"It was the least I could do. Now are you guys coming home tonight?" Lissa asked curiously.

"Nope. They aren't letting Dimitri go until tomorrow," I told her. Then I realized I had never told her Dimitri was in the hospital. I couldn't see Lissa, but if I could I was sure she would look angry.

"Aren't letting Dimitri go? Where exactly is Dimitri?" Lissa asked slowly. I could definitely hear the anger in her voice.

"I'm in a hospital Lissa. But it's nothing serious," Dimitri reassured her.

"I want to know everything. NOW!" Lissa shouted into the phone.

So we told her. Everything. Surprisingly, she didn't interrupt us throughout the whole story.

When we had finished, she squealed, "Oh my god! You guys are parents!"

Dimitri and I glanced at each other, joy in both our faces. "We know," we said in unison.


	41. Chapter 41

The next day, Dimitri and I reluctantly left the babies at the hospital to go get stuff for the nursery. We were very upset when we found out they would have to be at the hospital for almost a week. They would get to come home the day before elections. Dimitri and I were happy and sad at the same time. We were happy, because now we have time to set up the nursery. We were sad because we wanted to bring the babies home. Our babies.

After we left the hospital, the first thing we did was look for the perfect color of paint. We had decided on a baby blue for the walls, but we wanted to do a separate color for the border in their room. We eventually chose a soft periwinkle that we knew would accent the blue nicely.

We brought the paint cans home. Just like Lissa had promised, the cribs had been in our apartment when we got home. We quickly cleared out one of the spare rooms and brought in the paint cans. We didn't start painting; instead we decided to look for some decorations for the babies' room.

We went to a secondhand store. The moment I stepped in, I was in awe of what I saw. "Dimitri!" I gasped.

There was so much stuff. So much we could use to give personality to their room.

I walked over to a little bookshelf. It was a pale brown wood and had a little purple floral design down the sides. It was perfect. "We could fill this up with books. If we get a rocking chair and maybe a blanket, we can hold them while we read to them," I said, lost in my hopes for the future.

"We can get a little rug too, so that when their older they can sit on it while we read to them," Dimitri suggested. My eyes lit up and we continued to look around.

"Roza," Dimitri called from the other side of the room. I glanced over to him and saw him holding up a patchwork quilt. It was a checkerboard of soft reds and yellows and blues and greens. All different shapes, sizes, and shades.

"It's perfect," I breathed. I could see us wrapping our girls in that as we get ready to read them a bedtime story.

He grinned at me. "It's more than perfect. It was meant for us," he told me.

I couldn't help but agree. We scoured the rest of the store. I didn't find anything else I like until we approached the store clerk. In the corner of the room next to the cash register, hidden by a large desk was a rocking chair. It was almost the same color as the desk, except it was a little darker. The bars on the back rose to the top of the chair in delicate twists. The top of the chair was a thick half-circle piece. It had a black swirly design on it. It was made for us. I gripped Dimitri's hand tighter as I looked at the rocking chair.

Dimitri looked where I was looking and grinned. "I love it," he whispered to me.

We left the store with our purchases. We loaded our stuff up into one of the Court SUVs. "Where to?" Dimitri asked once he had started driving.

"We need to get some more stuff, but there's something I need to do," I told him reluctantly.

Dimitri looked at me curiously. "What do you need to do?" He asked me confused.

"I want to go to the clinic and take a pregnancy test," I told him, not looking at him.

"Okay," Dimitri said with a small smile. "When should we go?"

I closed my eyes and refused to face him. "Dimitri, I want to go by myself," I told him in a small voice. I couldn't open my eyes and see the hurt in his face. It's selfish, but I didn't want to have to face him immediately if it didn't work. It was cowardly and it was selfish, but it was what I needed to do.

"Okay," Dimitri said. I wasn't looking at him, but I could still here the pain in his voice.

"I'm sorry," I told him miserably. "If it worked, I want you there every step of the way. But I just can't have you here today. I can't let you see me like that if it didn't work."

I didn't realize until then how much I wanted a baby. Not the babies that we had adopted. Don't get me wrong. I already love those babies, but I want a baby that Dimitri and I created. I didn't realize how much hope I had put into Lissa's magic.

Dimitri pulled me towards him. "It's okay, really. I can go look for some decorations for the room while you go to the clinic. I'll meet you back at the apartment," he told me.

I looked at him. I knew he didn't understand, but he was trying. I loved him for that. "Tell you what. Since I'm being such a bitch, you can pick up some western decorations," I told him. His eyes lit up. This was a huge sacrifice on my part, but I knew it would make him happy. "Not all western, but a couple of things wouldn't be that bad."

He kissed my forehead. "Thank you Roza," he said to me gratefully.

I grinned at him. The car came to a stop and I realized we were outside of the clinic. "I love you Dimitri," I told him.

"I love you too," he replied. He kissed me quickly then I got out of the car.

I checked into the clinic and took my seat in the waiting room. After what felt like hours, a tall moroi doctor with curly black hair called my name. "Rosemarie Hathaway?" She called in a loud voice. I understand that she needed to make sure I heard, but I didn't need the whole building staring at me as I followed her inside.

"I am Dr. Neveze. What can I help you with today?" She asked me politely.

"I need to take a pregnancy test," I told her.

She nodded and ruffled through some boxes under the sink in the exam room. She pulled out a needle. I gulped. I had thought they would have a fancy pregnancy test, not a needle. "I just need to take some blood. It's the most accurate way to determine whether you are pregnant," the doctor explained.

I nodded, suddenly wishing Dimitri was here. I had never been fond of needles. I took a deep breath as she stabbed me with the needle. It was brutal. Okay, I may be exaggerating a little bit, but I really hate needles.

She left and returned almost an hour later. I took a deep breath and prepared myself for the news.


	42. Chapter 42

I walked back to our apartment. I was in shock. I had always known this would be a possibility, but I never actually thought it would happen. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going while I was walking back. I know I walked into a couple of people, but I was easily able to ignore their angry glares. My mind was on one thing, getting back to our apartment, getting back to Dimitri.

I walked up to our apartment and opened the door. I walked towards the nursery and saw that Dimitri had already put up a coat of paint. It looked amazing already and I knew it would only get better. He had the decorations he picked out in the middle of the floor.

I have to admit, I was impressed. He got two little stuffed bears. One was white and one was black. The black one had 'Mila' written across its chest in white. The white one had 'Lera' written across its chest in black. He also got two little door tags. They were both a pale purple and had little white butterflies in the background. Each one had one of their names written on it in a dark purple. I took them and put them on the door. They looked perfect.

I went back to look at his other purchases. I grinned when I saw the bag dedicated to his western decorations. There were two mobiles that had horses and cowboy hats on it. He got two blankets that were 'Toy Story' themed. They said 'You're my favorite deputy,' on them. They had a picture of woody underneath the caption. They were adorable.

I walked over to the bookshelf. He had gotten an assortment of children's books. I recognized some of the titles. He had really found a large assortment of books. I was very impressed.

He had also found a rug. It was lying out under the bookshelf. It was a large circular rug. It had a deep blue in the background and had little pale blue circles on it. It went well with the color we picked out for the walls. He had done a good job.

"Dimitri?" I called.

"In here," I heard him call from our bedroom. I slowly walked towards our room. I took a deep breath and walked in. I kept my face free of emotion. I didn't know how to tell him about my doctor's appointment.

He was lying down on the bed, reading a western. When I walked in, he put a bookmark in the book and sat up.

I walked over to him and sat down next to him. He pulled me towards him and I leaned my head against his chest. "The decorations are amazing," I said to him. "Even the western ones."

He chuckled. "I tried," he told me.

"I'm impressed that you didn't get all western stuff," I told him.

He shrugged. "I knew you wouldn't want a western themed nursery no matter what you said. I managed to find things that worked with what I wanted. When I saw the toy story blankets, I couldn't help myself. They were just to perfect," he explained.

"They are too perfect," I agreed. "Thank you." I pulled his head down and kissed him softly.

"How did you doctor's appointment go?" He asked me softly.

I looked up at him and I couldn't find my voice. Tears started to fall from my eyes. "Oh Roza," he said hugging me tightly. "It's alright. We can try again. Maybe it will work next time."

I shook my head. "Dimitri…" I started, but he cut me off before I could say anything.

"Or not… If you don't want to try again, I understand. I'm happy with the two little girls we have right now," he was rambling. Trying to be strong for me.

"Dimitri…" I tried again. No luck.

"It's really up to you. I'm just happy to have this opportunity to have a family with you. I don't want anything that you don't want," he promised me.

"Dimitri…" I said slightly louder. Still nothing.

"And we can always adopt another baby later down the line," he said.

"Dimitri!" I yelled.

He finally stopped talking and looked up at me surprised. "What Roza?" He asked me gently.

"Dimitri, it worked," I told him, not even trying to keep the joy out of my voice.

"Then why are you crying?" He asked me confused. I finally looked at his face. He looked like he wasn't sure he could believe his ears. He didn't look happy, which worried me. I had known he wanted a baby, but now that we had inherited two little mouths to feed, I wasn't sure how he would feel.

"Because I'm so happy. When I started to love you, I never thought I would be able to have children with you. Now it's happened. Some part of me didn't believe Lissa's potion would work. I never thought she would be able to 'cure' our infertility, but she did. And part of me is scared out of my mind because we have two babies to take care of and now I'm pregnant. And I don't know if we can handle having three babies in the house and what if I am pregnant with more than one like Samantha? We could have four babies in the house. At once. That's a lot! So between my happiness and my fear I just started crying," I explained. "Stupid hormones." I made a face then I grinned at him. "We're going to have a baby," I told him quietly.

"It worked?" He said still unsure. "You're pregnant?"

"It worked," I confirmed.

"Don't worry about this," he told me seriously. Dimitri jumped out of the bed. "We can handle all the babies in the world. I don't care if you get pregnant with octuplets. We will still be able to handle it."

I held my hand up. "We are not having octuplets. If I get pregnant with eight babies, I am never having sex with you again."

He rolled his eyes at me then pulled me up into his arms so that my feet were off the ground and then he twirled me. I giggled as he span.

"We're going to have a baby!" He said excitedly.

"Yes, we're going to have a baby," I agreed.

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know what you think. Constructive criticism is always welcome. I really do want to improve.


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